Jacques de Nervo (31 August 1897 – 27 June 1990) was a French industrialist. He was born into a family of railway pioneers and steelmakers. After World War I (1914–18) he joined one of the family companies as a factory worker, and quickly became an executive. He was involved in various major steel enterprises before, during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

(1939–45). He was responsible for the creation of

Usinor Usinor was a French steel making group formed in 1948. The group was merged with Sacilor in 1986, becoming Usinor-Sacilor and was privatised in 1995, and renamed Usinor in 1997. In 2001 it merged with Arbed (Luxembourg) and Aceralia (Spain) to for ...

, which became the largest French steel making group.

Family and early years

Jacques de Nervo was born on 31 August 1897, son of Baron Léon de Nervo and Germaine Davillier (1875–1949). He was the great grandson of

Léon Talabot Joseph Léon Talabot (5 February 1796 – 23 September 1863) was a French engineer, iron master and politician. He advocated protectionist policies to maintain the prices of iron and steel. He was the founder of the Denain-Anzin steelworks. Early ...

, one of the founders of the French railway industry. His grandfather, Baron

Robert de Nervo Baron Robert de Nervo (3 September 1842 – 24 August 1909) was a French industrialist involved in mining, steelmaking and railways. Early years Robert de Nervo was born on 3 September 1842 in Paris, France. His parents were Gonsalve Jean Bapti ...

, married Talabot's daughter and was the first of the Nervo family to enter business. He became vice-president of the

Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée The Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée ("Railway Company of Paris to Lyon and the Mediterranean"), also known as the Chemins de fer Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée or simply PLM, established in 1857, was one of Fran ...

(PLM) in 1896. Robert de Nervo died on 24 August 1909. Jacques' father Léon trained as an engineer at the

École centrale The Ecoles Centrales Group is an alliance, consisting of following grandes écoles of engineering: * CentraleSupélec (formed by merger of École Centrale Paris and Supélec) established in 2015 * École centrale de Lille established in 1854 * ...

, specializing in mining and metallurgy. Léon was involved in various businesses and became chief executive officer of Compagnie de Mokta-El Hadid, an Algeria iron mining company. Jacques de Nervo studied at the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...

and at Bossuet. He passed his '' baccalauréats'' during World War I and in 1916 joined the army as a private soldier. On his 21st birthday he was at the front with a battery of 75mm guns. He had just been named second lieutenant and given command of the battery to replace the former commander, who had been killed. He was made a knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, and was then appointed an officer in the Ministry of Labour. When he left the army in 1919 he was an officer with a Croix de Guerre and three citations. On 14 April 1920 Nervo married Jacqueline Ducourthial de Lassuchette (1901–1997) in Paris. He did not drink alcohol or smoke, and was always involved in sports. In 1922 he was a diving champion. He competed in the 1924 Olympics on a 6-meter sailboat, and was a polo player. He was head of the French Polo Federation. Later he became a dedicated golf player.

Career

Nervo began his career in 1919 by joining the Société du Saut-du-Tarn, a steelworks. The Société du Saut-du-Tarn had been created by Léon and Paulin Talabot, who also founded the

Société Mokta El Hadid The Société Mokta El Hadid was an iron ore mining company in Algeria, and later in other West African countries. From around 1865 until 1927 it was the largest mining company in Algeria, delivering ore of exceptional quality for processing in Fra ...

in Algeria, the Mines de charbon de la Grand-Combe and the Hauts Fourneaux de Denain-Anzin. To gain a thorough understanding of the business he worked at all the different jobs in the Saut-du-Tarn factory. He became general secretary of the company in 1921, a director, then president and chief executive officer. Throughout his career Jacques de Nervo was involved in the steel industry. The Centre des jeunes patrons was created due to the concerns of private business owners after the

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

won the 1936 elections. The honorary president was de Nervo, vice-president of the Société du Saut-du-Tarn and a member of the board of the

Union des industries et métiers de la métallurgie The Union des industries et métiers de la métallurgie (Union of Metallurgies Industries or UIMM) is the largest sub-federation of the '' Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF)'', the French largest union of employers. Its current presiden ...

(UIMM). He was chairman of the accident prevention committee of the UIMM. De Nervo entered Denain-Anzin as a director. When Henri de Nanteuil died accidentally in 1941 de Nervo took over as president of Denain Anzin. He made René Damien his second in command as director general. De Nervo and Damien were among the founders in 1947 of

(Union Sidérurgique du Nord de la France), in which Denain Anzin merged with the Forges et Aciéries du Nord et de l'Est. This was the first of a series of mergers in the French steel industry, followed by the creation of Sidélor, Lorraine-Escaut and

Sollac Sollac (Société Lorraine de Laminage Continu) was a French steel company formed in December 1948 as a cooperative to produce steel rolls in Lorraine from steel provided by several other companies. There were various changes of ownership during t ...

. De Nervo arranged various other mergers. In 1957 Usinor was the largest French steelmaker, with production of 2,160,000 tons. De Nervo was vice-president of the

Société des mines et fonderies de Pontgibaud The Société des mines et fonderies de Pontgibaud (Pontgibaud Mine & Foundry Company) was a French silver and lead mining and smelting company based in Pontgibaud, Puy-de-Dôme. It mined lead-silver ore deposits that had been exploited since Roman ...

in 1953. He was also a vice president of the

Ateliers et Chantiers de France The Ateliers et Chantiers de France (ACF, Workshops and Shipyards of France) was a major shipyard that was established in Dunkirk, France, in 1898. The shipyard boomed in the period before World War I (1914–18), but struggled in the inter-war p ...

and an administrator of Usinor. He was an administrator of Tubes de Valenciennes, Commentry-Fourchambault et Decazeville and Omnium Industriel et Commercial. Jacques de Nervo died on 27 June 1990 at the age of 92.

Notes

Sources

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