Edouard Michelin (43), who drowned on Friday in a boating accident, was hailed as a rising French business figure, having helped turn round the fortunes of his family tyre company at a young age.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, reacting on Saturday to Michelin’s death, said he was one of the ”rising figures” of the French economy.
Born in 1963, Edouard Michelin at the age of 22 joined the company run by his father, Francois, after studying engineering at Paris’s Ecole Centrale higher science college.
He was formally recognised as his father’s heir in 1991 at the age of 28 and became one of a triumvirate to breathe new life into the firm, helping it out of serious financial problems and taking over as head of the group in 1999.
In 1996 he was heavily involved in reorganising the group, concentrating more on product lines than on geographical regions. Among the developments under his leadership was the launching of ”green” tyres that help reduce petrol consumption.
He also helped expand the company into Asia, and explored new markets in central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. Michelin is now the world’s number-one tyre producer.
From 1991 to 1993 he directed the company’s operations in the United States, where he masterminded the integration into Michelin of Uniroyal Goodrich, bought by his company in 1990.
Outside his professional life, Michelin was said to have a keen interest in theology, Gregorian chants and mountain walking.
Michelin’s body was found floating among lobster traps off the coast of north-west France on Friday afternoon hours after he had left on a fishing expedition in good sea conditions with a friend.
He leaves behind a wife and six children.
The businessman was ”at the head of a group which has a special place for the French people”, French President Jacques Chirac said in a tribute. ”Edouard Michelin was able considerably to modernise his business by making it a French industrial champion recognised by all.”
Formula One motor-racing figures at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday also paid tribute to the Michelin boss following his death.
Michelin supplied tyres to the Renault, McLaren-Mercedes, Honda, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber teams, but was due to pull out of the sport after this season because of proposed changes by the FIA motoring federation.
”Edouard’s management style was dynamic and modern, and it allowed his company to become competitive to the point that it became an example to follow in the French economy,” said Renault’s Formula One president, Alain Dassas.
Renault’s general manager, Flavio Briatore, described Edouard Michelin as ”a fantastic competitor”.
He is succeeded at the head of the company by co-manager Michel Rollier. — AFP
