Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the new path of Medef



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He wanted it so much this "job", which he had dreamed twice before. In 2008, already when the former president of the badociation Growth Plus had had to bow to the wish of Laurence Parisot to make a second term. And in 2013, when, at the head of the advisory vote of the executive council, the former boss of The Phone House and Virgin Mobile had to rally to the more consensual candidacy of Pierre Gattaz, the "boss of combat" sent to the front face Francois Hollande's "anti-business policy"

On this radiant day of July 3, 2018, this time it was his turn: GRDB, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, has finally acceded to the supreme magistracy of the employers. President Medef at 56, he won without any discussions with 10 points ahead of his rival Alexander Saubot, the former boss of the UIMM, with 55.8% of the votes cast. The Medef, he knows it well, for having spent five years as vice-president in charge of the economy, digital and taxation alongside Pierre Gattaz.

Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, whose title of nobility was acquired by an ancestor, alderman of Lyon in 1769, was born in Paris on May 31, 1962. After studying in Neuilly then Essec, he began his career at L'Oréal before making a fortune in mobile telephony. Today boss of the investment fund Notus, he has invested in Oliviers & Co, which sells premium quality olive oil to China, but also in the food with the Fondant Baulois.

Large federations divided

For this great sportsman, former rugby player, who served in commandos de marines and is a follower of the "Ironman" triathlon (226 kilometers, chaining 3.8 km of swimming, 180.2 km cycling and a marathon!), the campaign was intense and may leave traces in the employers' union. The big federations split up, the industry and the bank supporting Alexandre Saubot, while the insurance and the building supported GRDB. His first act of president was to sound the reconciliation, proposing to his competitor to be "permanent guest" to the executive council and to bring his competences on the social matter to treat the future fight with the government which wants to tax the contracts short with a bonus-malus system, proposed by Emmanuel Macron in his campaign

He also kept his promise to feminise the Medef by appointing 5 entrepreneurs in his quota of 10 qualified personalities including a former candidate, sports like him, Dominique Carlac'h, who had supported him. He also sent some lifts back to those who helped him, such as Christian Nibourel, boss of the Services Professionals Group (GPS) and Claude Tendil, the new Medef social negotiator and Generali France boss.

Only 123,000 members

His ambition is written in his program: "transform the Medef to help transform the country". It is likely that the first task is the most difficult as the employers' union goes through a crisis, legitimacy and representativeness. To double the number of members, to the number of only 123,000, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux wants to clean up the 30,000 joint mandates and some 300 commissions various Medef, to refocus it to actions more useful to member companies. It also wants to renew governance and give more space to territorial Medef who expressed, by the number of candidatures for the presidency, a certain malaise. To reinvent itself, Medef will have to reform from within, offer new legal, tax or export advisory services. Patrick Martin, candidate of the Medef Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, will badist him to lead this project as president delegate.

But the bulk of the mandate of Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux will, he knows, on the social front, with several challenges . On paritarianism, he distinguishes between the participation in the management of Unedic and what he calls the negotiating paritarianism. It will have to decide by the end of the year according to the reforms of Emmanuel Macron, the maintenance or not of the Medef in the unemployment insurance. "We will only stay where we have autonomy of decision", he warned, refusing the negotiations-alibi where the State decides everything.

Not very fond of the great social mbades , this liberal wants to print its mark by proposing to revitalize the economic dialogue with the unions, in order to build with them a "diagnosis" even if not shared, on the changes brought about by the digital world in the world of work. He wants to build with the unions "a social and economic agenda" . To all those who predict the end of intermediate bodies, he retorts that "the state does not have a monopoly of the general interest" . Close to the world of startups, he is convinced that it is the companies "that change the world" and that the era of rapid changes that the world is going through is "a historic opportunity" for the Medef. "Our duty is to tell the truth and to propose solutions."

Two large building sites

Two large building sites will occupy its mandate. The first is that of apprenticeship and vocational training, while Muriel Penicaud, the Minister of Labor, has given a push for reforms that will have to be implemented. And Europe, which "is in great danger" and the world of business will be called to defend against the rise of populism and protectionism. "European employers will have a major role to play," he said during his election, and he plans to work more closely with the German and Italian employers, while Pierre Gattaz takes the presidency of Business Europe.

Refusing the term of patron of the bosses old and paternalistic, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux is presented as the "voice of entrepreneurs" and wants a Medef of Proposals, which reinvested the field of ideas "without hesitation to confront other currents of thought" . He will have the opportunity to demonstrate it at the Medef Summer School, which is being held on the HEC campus from August 28th to 29th. This will be the first media release for the new president of Medef, which will have much to do this summer to gather his movement, initiate the first transformations and meet the public authorities. The former member of the Attali commission knew Emmanuel Macron there at a time when no one predicted him such a destiny. Faced with a pro-business President of the Republic, but also very critical of the conservatism of intermediate bodies whose legitimacy he contests, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux will have to invent a new way to both restore the image of his movement, often badimilated to "mourners' choir" and become an interlocutor listened to by the government. For that, it will have to shake up an employer for whom the word of Lampedusa in the "Cheetah" – "it is necessary that everything changes so that nothing changes" – remains the norm. It is not sure that the Medef can this time afford the luxury of not changing anything.

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