André Bénard (19 August 1922 – 15 March 2016) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and an

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 perso ...

, who worked as one of the seven members of the Committee of the

managing directors Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

and, after his retirement from Shell, was designated copresident, and shortly after president, of the Eurotunnel company. As chairman of Eurotunnel, he "helped lead the construction of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone ( Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles (Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dove ...

linking

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and

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". He retired as chairman of Eurotunnel Group after the 31-mile tunnel opened in 1994, but later was accused by

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

s of misleading them about prospects for the project. In 2007, a French court cleared him of those charges." He was married to Jacqueline Bénard née Preiss, a former French magazine

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Early life and career

Born Pierre Jacques André Bénard in

Draveil Draveil () is a commune in the department of Essonne in the southern suburbs of Paris, France.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 The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern Franc ...

(the famous French cadet and engineer school) in 1942. But because of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he joined the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

in southern France then in

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. After having landed in Provence in August 1944, he was fighting around

Belfort Belfort (; archaic german: Beffert/Beffort) is a city in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, approximately from the France–Switzerland border. It is the prefecture of the Terr ...

(south to

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it ha ...

) when Polytechnique recalled him in order to begin studies (autumn 1944). Two years later, he joined the Royal Dutch Shell Group as an engineer. Fifteen years later, he was appointed a senior executive, first in France, then in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and United Kingdom : from 1972 to 1983, he was one of the seven

general managers A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the Anglo-Dutch Group. Three years after he retired from Shell, in 1986, he was approached to work on the construction of the Channel tunnel, as the co-chairman of the Anglo-French company in charge of supervising the building process (Eurotunnel). Fours years later (1990), he became its only chairman, a position he held until 1994, date of the opening of the transnational infrastructure. He definitely retired in 1994 and died in Paris in 2016.

References

Bibliography

* André Bénard (préf. Jean-Pierre Mignard), ''Le Hasard et l'Opiniâtreté : de la Royal Dutch Shell au Tunnel sous la Manche'' � Chance and Stubbornness: from the Royal Dutch Shell to the Channel Tunnel » Paris, éditions L'Harmattan, 6 September 2016, 208 p. (, ASIN B01MRILTE1)
description of André Bénard’s autobiography on a merchant site
1922 births 2016 deaths École Polytechnique alumni French industrialists French Resistance members {{France-business-bio-stub