Francis Mer (born 25 May 1939, in Pau) is a French businessman,

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through per ...

and politician. A former alumnus of the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, and of the

École des Mines de Paris Mines Paris - PSL, officially École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (until May 2022 Mines ParisTech, also known as École des mines de Paris, ENSMP, Mines de Paris, les Mines, or Paris School of Mines), is a French grande école and a ...

, he is a member of the

Corps des mines The ''Corps des mines'' is the foremost technical Grand Corps of the French State (grands corps de l'Etat). It is composed of the state industrial engineers. The Corps is attached to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. Its purpose is to e ...

. He was hired in 1970 by the

Saint-Gobain Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of ...

group. In 1982, he became chairman of the board of Pont-à-Mousson SA. In the 1980s, he joined the

Saint-Simon Foundation The Saint-Simon Foundation (french: Fondation Saint-Simon) was a French think tank that was created in 1982 and brought together public intellectuals, journalists, senior civil servants, business leaders, trade unionists, and academics. It terminate ...

think-tank. Following the 1986 legislative elections and the nomination of the conservative

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a Politics of France, French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

, he was nominated as president of the new

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 fo ...

group. He was reelected to his position in 1995, upon the group's privatization, and renamed the group

Arcelor Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004. The company was created in 2002 ...

in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was Minister of Finances in

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howev ...

's conservative government. Since 2005, he sits on the board of directors of Vale Inco, which benefited from an important tax rebate to exploit a nickel mine in New Caledonia while he was finance minister. In June 2009, he became chairman of the board of

Safran Safran S.A. is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures aircraft engines, rocket engines as well as various aerospace and defense-related equipment or their components. It was formed by a merger between SNECMA a ...

. In April 2011, due to the change of structure of

Jean-Paul Herteman Jean-Paul Herteman is a French aerospace engineer, materials scientist and chief executive. He was CEO of Safran until 23 April 2015, the French Aerospace engine & equipment manufacturer and Chairman of both the French Aerospace Industries Associ ...

became

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and Francis Mer became Vice Chairman.Les Echos.fr, 21/4/2011, Francis Mer et le "sexe dit faible", Francis Mer, dont les actionnaires ont voté le renouvellement de mandat d'administrateur pour deux ans, devrait être nommé vice-président du groupe en vertu de la nouvelle gouvernance qu'un conseil d'administration doit avaliser dans l'après-midi
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Notes

1939 births Living people French chief executives École Polytechnique alumni Mines ParisTech alumni Corps des mines Politicians of the French Fifth Republic French Ministers of Finance Safran Group people {{France-politician-stub