Gérard Mestrallet

Gérard Mestrallet is the Special Envoy of the French President for IMEC, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. He has been appointed by Emmanuel Macron in late November 2023 a few months after the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the Republic of India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, Germany, Italie and the United States of America (USA). Previously, M. Mestrallet served as Executive Chairman of the French Agency for AlUla (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) cultural, heritage and tourism development in cooperation with the Kingdom from 2018 to 2023.

Gérard Mestrallet is a prominent figure of the French private sector after acting more than 21 years as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GDF SUEZ (now ENGIE; CAC 40 index) after the merger between SUEZ and Gaz de France on July 2008. In 2015, he was appointed by the government Chairman of the Business dialogue of the COP 21 which has contributed to the final agreement of the climate conference.

He has held various positions at the Treasury Department and at the Cabinet office of the Minister of Economy and Finance (J. Delors) at the beginning of his career, before joining Compagnie Financière de SUEZ in 1984. In 1991 he served as Chairman of the Management Committee of Société Générale de Belgique. In 1995, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Compagnie de SUEZ.

Gérard Mestrallet has been a member of the Board respectively of the Société Générale, Siemens, AXA, Saint-Gobain and the Saudi Electric Company (SEC) and remains the honorary Chairman of SUEZ and of ENGIE. He was member of the Shanghai and Beijing Mayors’ International Economic Advisory Council and he is member of the Chongqing Mayor’s International Economic Advisory Council. He was also member of the International Council of JP Morgan Chase and has been Chairman of Paris EUROPLACE for 12 years.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes