Serge Dassault

Serge Dassault (Paris, April 4, 1925 – Paris, May 28, 2018) was a French engineer, businessman, and politician. He was Chairman and CEO of the Dassault Group and a conservative politician. In 2010, he and his family were ranked 89th on the list of the world's richest people. According to Forbes, Dassault's net worth in 2016 was estimated at $15 billion.

Biography

He was the youngest son of Madeleine Dassault (née Minckès) and Marcel Dassault (born Marcel Ferdinand Bloch), from whom he inherited the Dassault Group. His parents were of Jewish descent but later converted to Catholicism.

Serge Dassault studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly in the 16th district of Paris, where he obtained his baccalaureate. He earned engineering degrees from École Polytechnique (class of 1946) and Supaéro (class of 1951). In 1963, he obtained an Executive MBA from HEC Paris.

Following the death of his father in 1986, Serge continued to develop the company with the help of Charles Edelstenne (president of Dassault) until he handed the position over to his son Olivier Dassault, born in 1953, who also served as a member of the French National Assembly.

Although not an active member, he remained part of the French political party UMP (Union for a Popular Movement). He was also the mayor of the city of Corbeil-Essonnes, a southern suburb of Paris.

The Dassault Group

The Dassault Group has owned 82% of Socpresse since 2001. Interestingly, in France, the two most prominent media conglomerate, Dassault and Lagardère, both have close ties to the aerospace and defense sector. Lagardère includes aerospace companies such as MATRA, and EADS. The director of Le Monde Diplomatique, Ignacio Ramonet, commented in 1997: "The Dassault and Lagardère groups share the troubling characteristic of being built around a central company dedicated to military activity—fighter jets, helicopters, missiles, rockets, satellites, etc."

On June 18, 2004, Serge Dassault became CEO of Socpresse. From that point, he controlled many media outlets, including major newspapers and magazines, most notably Le Figaro (acquiring 30%) and L'Express.

On July 8, 2004, the Bouygues Group and its subsidiary TF1 (one of France's leading television networks) each acquired 5% of Socpresse, owned by Serge Dassault. In response to a potential media oligopoly between Bouygues and Socpresse, the French Media Observatory (OFM) issued a public appeal for a new anti-concentration law to protect information pluralism and freedom of expression.

Until his death, his son Olivier Dassault focused less on media and more on the aerospace industry that originally created the group. The Iraq War heightened public sensitivity around issues such as arms sales, fighter jets, and the company's involvement in the conflict. French media offered little criticism of the Iraq War. Socpresse effectively succeeded the media empire of the Hersant family, known for their close ties to the Dassaults. The transaction amount for this acquisition remains undisclosed but is estimated at approximately 1.2 billion euros.

Controversies

• In 2001, Serge Dassault censored an interview about the fraudulent sale of Mirage fighter jets to Taiwan. He also ordered the censorship of an interview with Jacques Chirac regarding sales to Algeria.

• In 1976, Dassault's political ties with Chirac were already evident. Chirac was both his political ally and a close associate of his father, Marcel Dassault. While Chirac served as Prime Minister (1974–1988), a political-financial scandal erupted that lingered for years. Spanish newspaper El País reported on September 14, 1976: "The 'king' of French aerospace, Marcel Dassault, is once again at the center of a political-financial scandal that, if confirmed, would greatly damage the ruling majority. Dassault is a Gaullist MP for the Oise department."

• In December 1998, Serge Dassault was sentenced to two years' probation for the Agusta-Dassault scandal, involving the sale of fighter aircraft to the Belgian Minister of Economy, and was fined 60,000 Belgian francs (approximately 1,500 euros).

• On July 27, 2004, Rebelión published an article titled "The Well-Armed Journalism of Serge Dassault."

• In 2004, Serge Dassault financed, with 200 million euros of his own money, the construction of an Islamic Cultural Center (essentially a mosque) in his city of Corbeil-Essonnes.

• In 2004, Serge Dassault became a senator, where he advocated conservative positions on economic and employment policies for the state.

See Also

• Dassault Group
• Marcel Dassault