Georges Besse
Georges Noël Besse (Clermont-Ferrand, December 25, 1927 – November 17, 1986) was a French engineer, businessman, and industrialist who contributed to the development of France’s nuclear program during the 1950s. After leading several private companies, he was appointed in 1985 by the government of François Mitterrand as chairman and CEO of the nationalized company Regie Renault, until he was assassinated shortly thereafter on November 17, 1986 by the group Action Directe.
Biography
Georges Besse graduated second in his class from École Polytechnique and began working as a mining engineer in the early 1950s. Between 1958 and 1985, he was director of the company USSI and the military-purpose enrichment center in Pierrelatte, a role he held alongside management positions at the Alcatel group starting in 1964. From 1970 to 1974, he was president and director of the CIT-Alcatel group before returning to the nuclear industry as chairman of the board of Société Eurodif, which at the time was building the uranium enrichment plant at Tricastin—then the largest in the world. He also served as president of the Compagnie Générale des Matières Nucléaires (COGEMA) until 1982.
In 1982, his career shifted when he was appointed president of the Pechiney-Ugine-Kulmann group, and later in 1985 was named by the government of François Mitterrand as chairman and CEO of the state-owned company Regie Renault to rescue it from financial crisis.
In 1986, he was assassinated by the far-left group Action Directe for having laid off 21,000 workers during his first 18 months in the role.[1] The killers were sentenced to life in prison.
In his memory, several production centers of Eurodif and Renault bear his name, and the Fondation Georges Besse awards prizes in his honor to students from French engineering schools.
References
- ↑ «1986: French car chief shot dead»