Follows will move to Alstom from tech outsourcer Xansa next month. He said that his search for PR support was at a very early stage, but that he hoped to appoint an agency in early 2008.
He added that Alstom has a corporate comms team in Paris and Baden, but little support in the UK, with one unnamed agency acting on a project basis.
The company, which also develops high-speed TGV trains, was an instant winner on the stock market when longtime supporter Nicolas Sarkozy was elected as French president earlier this year.