The "Directeur des opérations" was Pierre RIBARDIERE, the launch failure had nothing to do with him, it was due to a software bug (overflow) in a component that was reused from Ariane 4, but bugged out in Ariane 5 due to the much greater accélération IIRC.
Oh I know, I just remember his look of utter despondence, and wondered if he'd get the old scapegoat treatment or something.