Georges Besse (25 December 1927 – 17 November 1986) was a French businessman who led several large state-controlled French companies. He was assassinated outside his Paris home by the terrorist group
Action directe. At the time of his death he was the CEO of French car manufacturer
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
.
Career timeline
* 1958 - General manager of USSI Ingénierie (''L'usine de séparation isotopique'', uranium enrichment company).
* 1964 - Becomes manager assistant general manager of CIT-
Alcatel.
* 1974 - Becomes president of
Eurodif.
* 1978 - Becomes chairman of
COGEMA
Orano Cycle, formerly COGEMA (''Compagnie générale des matières nucléaires'') and Areva NC, is a French nuclear company. It is the main subsidiary of Orano S.A. It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, inclu ...
.
* 1982 - Becomes director of Pechiney-Ugine-Kulmann.
* 1985 - Becomes director of
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
.
At Renault
Besse became the head of the
public-owned Renault automaker in January 1985. He was credited with taking the money-losing company to reporting a
profit
Profit may refer to:
Business and law
* Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market
* Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit
* Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...
only two months before he was gunned down. He was criticized because his plan to make the bloated enterprise efficient included closing plants and laying off 21,000 workers. Labor unions opposed his actions in Europe, as well as his support for Renault's investments in the United States. The French company was a major stockholder in
American Motors
American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...
(AMC), which was also experiencing financial problems. Renault invested additional resources in AMC for launching new
Jeep
Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...
vehicles, upgrading to
fuel injection
Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines.
All comp ...
for updated
2.5 L and
4.0 L AMC engines, as well as a new factory in
Brampton, Ontario
Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it the ...
. While some Renault executives and labor leaders perceived AMC with negative bias, Besse championed the future in the North American market just as Jeep
four-wheel drive
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
s were riding an unprecedented surge in demand. Not only did Besse make Renault profitable, but AMC was also on course to profitability with growing markets and sales.
Assassination
Besse was gunned down at about 20:25 in the evening of 17 November 1986 on the sidewalk at the front steps of 16 Boulevard Edgar Quinet, walking to his 18th-century villa at 12 Boulevard Edgar Quinet — in Paris'
14th Arrondissment, the Montparnasse district. The scene was witnessed by one of Besse's daughters, who'd observed the street from an upstairs window while waiting for her father's 20:30 return.
Besse's killers approached just as he alighted from his
chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.
Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...
-driven car a short distance from his home. Witnesses said Besse was shot four to six times, in the head and in the chest, dying almost immediately when he fell on the pavement. Reports varied on whether the assailants escaped by car, motorcycle, or on foot.
Leaflets by the militant
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
organization
Action Directe were sent three months later. The organization claimed responsibility for the murder, stating the murder was in retaliation for his reforms of the financially stricken automaker Renault which involved laying off a large number of workers. However, the Action Directe members denied any responsibility during their trial.
Two women,
Nathalie Ménigon and
Joëlle Aubron, were charged with his murder in March 1987 and were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989. Two other Action Directe members, Jean-Marc Rouillan and
Georges Cipriani, were convicted as accomplices and also sentenced to life imprisonment.
Commemoration
Renault's car assembly plant in
Douai
Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, ...
in northern France, was renamed in Besse's honour.
The Georges Besse
gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment plant was operated by
COGEMA
Orano Cycle, formerly COGEMA (''Compagnie générale des matières nucléaires'') and Areva NC, is a French nuclear company. It is the main subsidiary of Orano S.A. It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, inclu ...
(later
AREVA
Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...
) from 1979 to 2012 at
Tricastin
The Tricastin is a natural and historic region in the southern Rhône valley of southeastern France comprising the southwestern portion of the Drôme department and the northwestern portion of Vaucluse and centered on the modern town of Saint-P ...
, then replaced by the Georges Besse II
centrifuge enrichment plant.
See also
*
American Motors Corporation
American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...
(AMC)
*
List of assassinations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besse, Georges
1927 births
1980s murders in Paris
1986 deaths
1986 murders in France
American Motors people
Assassinated French people
Autonomism
Businesspeople from Clermont-Ferrand
Chief executives in the automobile industry
Corps des mines
Deaths by firearm in France
École Polytechnique alumni
French terrorism victims
Mines ParisTech alumni
People murdered in Paris
Renault people
Terrorism deaths in France