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 pharmaceuticals group Fournier before becoming an adviser on mergers, acquisitions and corporate strategy at Charterhouse Bank Limited in London.
From 1995 to 2002, he held several executive positions in the French administration.
In 2002, Patrice Caine joined the Thales Group's Strategy department before being appointed to manage the following operating units: Air & Naval, Communications, Navigation & Identification, Air Systems, Radio-communication Products, Network & Infrastructure Systems and Protection Systems.
In February 2013, he was appointed Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Performance Officer of Thales.
Patrice Caine was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thales in December 2014.
He has served on the Boards of Directors of Naval Group since 2015, and L’Oréal since 2018.
He has been Vice-President of GIFAS (Groupement des Industries Françaises Aéronautiques et Spatiales) since 2015 and Chairman of ANRT (Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie) since 2019. In 2020, he became Vice President of France Industrie, President of the Cercle de l'Industrie and a member of the executive committee of the Conseil National de l’Industrie. He was appointed to the supervisory committee of France's Investissements d’Avenir programme in 2021.
In France, Patrice Caine has been awarded the National Defence Medal (bronze level) and was named Knight of the National Order of Merit in 2014 and Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2017.