Patrice Caine is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École des Mines de Paris and holds the rank of Ingénieur en Chef of the Corps des Mines. He began his career in 1992 with the pharmaceutical group Fournier before becoming an adviser on mergers, acquisitions and corporate strategy at Charterhouse Bank Limited in London.
From 1995 to 1998, he was special adviser to the Prefect of the Franche-Comté region of France and head of the Industrial Development and Energy Division at DRIRE, the French agency responsible for industry, research and the environment.
From 1998 to 2000, he joined the Conseil Général des Mines, in charge of human resources for the Corps des Mines. At the same time, he was responsible for training engineering students at the École des Mines de Paris for the Technical Grand Corps of the French State. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the technical advisor on energy at the cabinet office of the French Minister for the economy, finance and industry.
In 2002, Patrice Caine joined the Thales Group's Strategy department before being appointed to manage the following operating units - Air & Naval, Communication, Navigation & Identification, Air Systems, Radio-communication Products, and Network & Infrastructure Systems and Protection Systems.
In February 2013, he was appointed Senior Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Performance Officer and joined the Executive Committee.
Patrice Caine was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thales in December 2014.
He was awarded the Médaille de la Défense Nationale (National Defence Medal - Bronze) and in 2014, he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight of the National Order of Merit).