PARIS—Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier is joining French oil company Total as vice president, corporate communications, succeeding Yves-Marie Dalibard. Reporting to chairman and chief executive officer Christophe de Margerie, Saulnier will also sit on Total’s management committee.

Saulnier most recently served as senior vice president of communications and spokesman for Areva since September 2001. He joined Areva in 1999 as executive assistant to Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Cogema, one of Areva’s predecessor companies.

Prior to that, in 1998 he was vice president of institutional relations at Alcatel. Earlier in his career, he was deputy chief of staff to the French Minister of the Economy and Finance in 1996, chief of staff to the French Minister of Communications, and chief of staff to the Mayor of Grenoble in 1992.

Saulnier was recently named one of the world's 100 most influential corporate communicators by The Holmes Report.