Gilbert Trigano

Gilbert Trigano (born July 28, 1920 in Montreuil-sous-Bois , Seine-Saint-Denis; † February 4, 2001 ) was a French entrepreneur who developed the Club Med from the smallest of beginnings to its later importance.

Life

Born into a family of Jewish merchants from Algeria , Gilbert Trigano was active in the Resistance during the Second World War and joined the communist youth organization Les Forces unies de la jeunesse patriotique . After the war he was editor of the communist youth magazine L'Avant-Garde for several years , later chief reporter of the communist central organ L'Humanité .

He then joined his father's family business, which supplied the Club Méditerranée, founded by Gérard Blitz in 1950, with tents and camping equipment. With him he founded the first typical Club Med tent villages on Mallorca (which at that time was still completely insignificant as a holiday destination), then in Italy , Greece and various other locations and revolutionized the concept by introducing the "all-inclusive" - Thoughts and the club character (no formalities, loose clothing, duces between the holiday guests, animators who took care of the well-being, etc.) institutionalized and the respective "Chefs de village" equipped with extensive management powers.

In 1953 Gilbert Trigano became CFO and in 1963 CEO of the company. In the same year, Club Med gave up its non-profit status and also officially became a commercial company in the form of a public company .

In 1993, Trigano's son, Serge Trigano, succeeded the Club Med. In 1997 the Trigano family also lost their status as minority shareholders and was ousted by other investors, especially the Agnelli family (FIAT).

Philippe Bourguignon, former Euro Disney boss, replaced Serge Trigano as the new president of Club Med.

On July 6, 2000, Gilbert and his son Serge Trigano, former Club Med directors, were sentenced to eight months probation and a fine of 30,000 francs because they were responsible for the culpability of the company chartering a poorly maintained aircraft in Senegal in 1992 , which crashed on landing in Cap Skirring, killing 30 people.

Even as a very wealthy man, Gilbert Trigano never forgot the ideals of his communist origins and donated large sums of money for the integration of disadvantaged young people from the Parisian banlieues and for the promotion of the Israeli-Arab dialogue.

Gilbert Trigano died at the age of 80 and is buried on the Cimetière Montparnasse in Paris .

Gilbert Trigano is the brother of the politician André Trigano, mayor of Pamiers (Ariège) since 1995 .

literature

• Gilbert Trigano / Serge Trigano, La Saga du Club , Paris 1998
• Alain Faujas, Trigano: l'aventure du Club Med , Paris 2001