Cyril Hubert Marie Bourlon de Rouvre is a French businessman and politician, born 19 December 1945 at
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and t ...
.
Biography
Education and early career
Son of Évrard Bourlon de Rouvre, an industrialist, and his wife Claude Genty, Cyril Bourlon de Rouvre is the heir of sugar refineries and the landed property of his great-grandfather, Charles Bourlon de Rouvre (1850–1924), himself stepson of one of the richest men at the end of the 19th century, Gustave Lebaudy.
After studies at the ''collège Maspero'' in Paris, then at the ''collège Saint-Martin de France'' in Pontoise, the Oratory School in
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
aerospace engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to Ancient history, antiquity and it continues in some countries to th ...
and started his career as a sales engineer at the Elliot Automation company (1966–1968) before being Director of export of the Sucre Union company (1971–1973). He was business manager of the sales support department of the Lara audiovisual company (1973), then commercial agent in the audiovisual (1974–1975) and associate director at the Auto Racing company (1977).
A young and dynamic business leader
In 1979, upon the death of his father (who was murdered by his valet), he inherited large real estate holdings, a sugar refinery and 28 companies. He became CEO of ''Financière Robur et de Cofragec'' (1982–1992), ''Coficine'' (1984–1992) and many other companies.
He modernized the sugar factory and his inheritance prospered. In 1981, he took control of the holding Fraissinet, owner of the business airline Transair. In 1987, he started a new career in film distribution by acquiring, from the producer Robert Dorfmann, by one of its companies, the ''Financière Robur'', Cofragec company with its catalog of 650 films including '' La Grande Vadrouille'' or '' La Vache et le Prisonnier''. He produced movies including '' La Nuit bengali'' (1988) of
Nicolas Klotz
Nicolas Klotz (born 22 June 1954) is a French filmmaker born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine.
Filmography
*'' Rendez-vous avec Marguerite'' 1983
*''The Bengali Night'' 1988 with Hugh Grant, Shabana Azmi and Soumitra Chatterjee
*'' La Nui ...
, ''Les Deux Fragonard'' (1989) of Philippe Le Guay, and ''
La Peste
''The Plague'' (french: La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus. Published in 1947, it tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The narrator remains unknown until the start of the ...
'' (1992) of
Luis Puenzo
Luis Adalberto Puenzo (born 19 February 1946) is an Argentine film director, producer and screenplay writer. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina, but has also worked in the United States.
Biography
Puenzo was born in Buenos Aires in 1946 ...
. He also invested in real estate, including a hotel in
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...
.
Passionate about cars and racing, he rallied with
Thierry Sabine
Thierry Sabine (13 June 1949, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 14 January 1986, Mali) was a French wrangler, motorcycle racer and founder and main organizer of the Dakar Rally.
Career
In 1977 he got lost on the Tchigai Plateau, near the isolated mountain of ...
Political life in Haute-Marne and investment in Formula 1
In 1989, he started a political career in ''
Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.Third Republic. He was elected mayor of
Chaumont Chaumont can refer to:
Places Belgium
* Chaumont-Gistoux, a municipality in the province of Walloon Brabant
France
* Chaumont-Porcien, in the Ardennes ''département''
* Chaumont, Cher, in the Cher ''département''
* Chaumont-le-Bois, in the C ...
, as an independent (classified as
miscellaneous right
Miscellaneous right (', ''DVD'') in France refers to right-wing candidates who are not members of any large party. This can include members of small right-wing parties, dissidents expelled from their party for running against their party's can ...
) against the centrist senator and mayor Georges Berchet, and regional councilor for the
Champagne-Ardenne
Champagne-Ardenne () is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the historic province of Champagne, the region is known for its sparkling white wine of the ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
(1992–1998).
He takes his team as an alderman, a man of 25 years,
Luc Chatel
Luc-Marie Chatel () (born on 15 August 1964 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA) is a French politician of the Republicans (LR) who served as Minister of National Education in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from June 2009 to May 20 ...
, becoming the first "political godfather".
Owner of the
Formula 1
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
team AGS from March 1989 to 1991, he swallowed $18 million and began selling activities of his group, about 70 companies: First Transair, then the sugar factory, sold to the ''Compagnie de Navigation Mixte'', and in 1992, the catalog of movies, lent to UGC in the form of a merger. In 1991, he sold AGS to the Italians Gabriele Rafanelli and Patrizio Cantu.
In 1992, Cyril de Rouvre bought the
Formula 1
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
team Ligier for an estimated price of 200 million francs. With its new owner, the team started to again be competitive – the
1993 season
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The White House (Moscow), Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Cze ...
was a success, with a 5th place in the constructor's championship (the team's best result since 1986). But the involvement of Cyril de Rouvre lasted only one season because of legal troubles.
The legal troubles and the decline
On 5 May 1993, a complaint for fraud was filed against de Rouvre by Guy Verrecchia and Alain Sussfeld, the leaders of UGC, following the June 1992 takeover of Cofragec. The company had been emptied of its assets, leaving a liability estimated at 172.6 million francs. De Rouvre had promised to repay this sum by the end of 1992, but at that time, he still owed 100 million. He was incarcerated by Judge Eva Joly at the Fleury-Mérogis Prison on 14 December 1993, spending two months in prison.
In early 1994, he sold Ligier to
Flavio Briatore
Flavio Briatore (; born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman. He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy. Briatore was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison senten ...
.
He lost the mayoralty of Chaumont at the French municipal elections of 1995.
In 1996, a judicial investigation was opened against him at the ''Tribunal de grande instance'' of Chaumont. He appeared before the Criminal Court of this city in September 1999 for tax evasion. Knowing that the prosecution had requested a sentence of three years imprisonment and a 20-year ban on company management, he was sentenced on 19 December 1999, his birthday, to a
suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...
of 18 months imprisonment, a ban from managing a company for 3 years, and a large fine.
Bibliography
* ''
Who's Who in France
''Who's Who in France'' is a biographical dictionary published in France and written in French.
In France it is simply "le ''Who's Who''".
History
The first edition of ''Who's Who in France'' was published in 1953 by Jacques Lafitte.
In 197 ...
'', 2002–2003, Levallois-Perret, Jacques Lafitte Editions, 2002, p. 1648