Press release — Ho Chi Minh City, September 21, 2026
After 21 years with the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris, the Paris fire brigade, and then a career in teaching and school leadership in French Guiana, Stéphane Chatelin is joining Saigon for the start of the 2026-2027 school year as Head of Primary Education. His background — where supporting teams, steering educational projects and handling complex situations meet — strengthens the educational leadership of French International School Boule & Billes.
His remit will include ensuring educational coordination across the two campuses of Thảo Điền and Bình Thạnh, supporting the teams as they implement the school project, and contributing to the continuation of the educational projects led by Boule & Billes.
He will carry out his duties alongside the founders, Yen Thu and Thierry Fernandez, who remain at the head of the school and continue their commitment to its development and its standing.
A career between frontline service and school leadership
His path is not that of an ordinary school principal. He left the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris for French Guiana, in service of the Kourou space center; it was there that he went back to studying by distance learning and qualified as a primary school teacher. He taught in Cayenne, then in Camopi, an Amerindian village a day’s pirogue journey from the nearest town, before supporting children with special educational needs in Kourou as a special needs teacher. He then became deputy principal of the cité scolaire — the combined school — of Saint-Georges-de-l’Oyapock, on the Brazilian border.
From the classroom to school leadership, he has thus seen the different dimensions of education, from kindergarten to middle school. That experience now feeds his ambition for Boule & Billes: to offer every child a demanding and nurturing environment, to give the teams the means to help every student succeed, and to build genuine educational continuity, from primary school to middle school.
His priority: one consistent framework on both campuses
What convinced him to come to Saigon: “a demanding and nurturing school, on a human scale”. His priority for the year: a consistent educational framework on both campuses, closer ties between the teams and families, and particular attention paid to each child’s individual needs.
He is settling in Vietnam with his family: his two children are enrolled at the school, and his wife is joining the teaching team with a Grade 4/Grade 5 class. French schools abroad are glad to recruit teaching couples: a settled family stays, whereas a teacher on their own often leaves after one or two contracts — and the children keep their teachers from one year to the next.
“I am aware of the trust you place in the school for your children’s education. It will be at the heart of my daily commitment, with a team fully mobilized at your side”,
says Stéphane Chatelin.
Thierry Fernandez: “an obvious choice”
Thierry Fernandez, co-founder of the school, explains that choice:
“Entrusting the leadership of the school to Stéphane Chatelin came as an obvious choice. The director’s post is a particularly demanding one; it calls for solid moral strength, composure and a faultless sense of structure. Stéphane has that valuable experience, gained outside the traditional school setting, which gives him a unique perspective and a natural authority.
For the children and the parents, his presence is the promise of a framework that is at once structured, nurturing and reassuring, where everyone grows in confidence.
Yen Thu and I wish him every success in his new duties and a tremendous human adventure within Boule & Billes!”
Families can request a school visit.
About French International School Boule & Billes
Opened in 2004 in Ho Chi Minh City, the school is celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year. It welcomes children from nursery through Grade 5 on two campuses, in Thảo Điền and in Bình Thạnh. It teaches the curriculum of the French school system, accredited by the French Ministry of National Education for Cycles 1, 2 and 3; from the age of three, children learn in three languages: French, English and Vietnamese. bouleetbilles.net/en