Jean-Marie Messier

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Jean-Marie Messier (born December 13, 1956 in Grenoble ) is a French businessman who was director general of the multinational media conglomerate Vivendi or Vivendi Universal from 1994 to 2002 .

Messier studied from 1976 to 1980 at the École polytechnique and then from 1980 to 1982 at the École nationale d'administration (ENA). He then held various positions in the French Ministry of Economic Affairs during the 1980s , including being Head of Cabinet of the Assistant Minister for Privatization Camille Cabana ( RPR ) and advisor on privatization issues to Economics Minister Édouard Balladur (also RPR). After the change of government from the bourgeois to the left camp, he resigned from the civil service in 1989 and became an investment banker at Lazard .

In 1994 Messier was appointed General Manager of Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE), originally a water company but which had diversified into waste disposal, energy, transport, construction, real estate, media and telecommunications under the leadership of Messier's predecessor Guy Dejouany . Messier became President-directeur général (PDG) of the company in 1996 , so he was both managing director and chairman of the board of directors. The CGE was renamed Vivendi in 1998 . As part of a restructuring, the two company branches Vivendi Environnement (water, waste, energy, transport) and Vivendi Communication (telecommunications and media) were created. Messier promoted the merger of Vivendi with Canal + and Seagram (owner of Universal Studios ), resulting in Vivendi Universal in 2000, which became the second largest media company in the world after AOL Time Warner . Vivendi Environnement, on the other hand, was listed on the stock exchange as an independent stock corporation (later it became Veolia ). Thus, under Messier's leadership, the change of the CGE / Vivendi from a French water supplier to an international media conglomerate was completed.

In 2001 Vivendi had to report a loss of 13.6 billion euros (11.8 billion US dollars). Messier was then forced to resign from his position in July 2002. During his tenure as CEO of Vivendi, he had used company funds to buy a $ 17.5 million apartment in New York City for his personal use at 515 Park Avenue at 60th Street . In the apartment he received economic and political leaders such as Senator Jon Corzine . After being released, Messier tried to claim the apartment as part of his severance package, but was refused.

Messier moved to New York to work as a business advisor. Today he runs a consulting firm based in New York City and Paris .

Messier is known in the business and media world as "J2M". The satirical television program Les Guignols de l'info made it "J6M" - for "  J EAN M aria M essier, m oi m EME m you Aître m onde" ( "Jean-Marie Messier, myself ruler of the world") . Messier also adopted this abbreviation himself, he sometimes signed his e-mails with it and in 2000 published a book under the title J6m.com .

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jo Johnson, Martine Orange: The Man Who Tried To Buy The World. Jean-Marie Messier and Vivendi Universal. Viking, London 2003, ISBN 1-59184-018-X , p. 238.
  2. ↑ Jean-Marie Messier, l'homme qui se croyait “maître du monde” In: Le Point (online), May 29, 2010.
  3. ^ A. Chatterjee, DC Hambrick: It's all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and their effects on firm strategy and performance. In: Administrative Science Quarterly. 52, 2007, pp. 351-386.
personal data
SURNAME Messier, Jean-Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Grenoble