Pierre-François Forissier

Pierre-François Forissier (born 29 December 1951, Lorient) is a French admiral. He is notable as a former head of the French Navy, chef d'état-major de la marine, a post he took up on 4 February 2008 and left on 12 September 2011.

Life
After studying his secondary education in Nice, Marseille and Toulon, he then attended the Lycée naval at Brest (1968–1971) and the École Navale (1971–1975). He left the naval academy as an enseigne de vaisseau de première classe to join the French submarine forces in 1975. He served on all types of operational submarines, notably commanding the nuclear attack submarine Rubis and the ballistic missile submarine Tonnant. He also served as a surface officer as second officer of the 20th minesweepers division, second officer of the minesweeper Glycine and manoeuvring-officer of the carrier Foch.

He entered the naval staff in the material division then moved to its maps division. He was then second in command of the Brest Naval Training Centre and was promoted to general rank in 2001. He became the territorial admiral to the commander of the Atlantic maritime region then admiral in command of France's submarine forces and the Force Océanique Stratégique, before finally being made major général de la marine in 2005.

On 16 January 2008 he was named chef d'état-major de la marine to the conseil des ministres and took up his responsibilities on 4 February 2008.

He married Brigitte Desbrest on 24 June 1978 at Bonnetan, and they have 4 children.