Archetype of the “great state clerk”, he was director general of the national police, expert in national defense, CEO of EDF and, finally, business banker. He died, on January 12, at the age of 78.
by Jean-Michel Bezat
High civil servant, decentralizer, director general of the national police, expert in national defense, CEO of EDF and, finally, business banker … François Roussely will have had several lives since his leaving ENA (promotion Pierre -Mendès-France), in 1978. This man as discreet as influent died, at 78, of a long illness. It was the electricity group, of which he was CEO from 1998 to 2004, which announced his death, Thursday, January 12, by sharing the “immense sadness” of the company.
“Serve” was one of the watchwords of this archetype of the “Great State Clerk”, born January 9, 1945 in Belvès (Dordogne), in the heart of Périgord Noir, a teaching mother and ‘A technical agent father at EDF. From this native southwest, he had kept the taste for rugby and his local products. The young official is socialist. The left installed in power in 1981, it is involved in the reform of decentralization in the office of Gaston Defferre. The continuation is marked with the sovere seal, in the shadow of Pierre Joxe, Minister of the Interior. He headed his cabinet in 1985, then in 1988-1989, before being appointed director general of the national police. A difficult decade, where the left must be accepted in a police environment which is very hostile to it.
He continued his career as secretary general for the administration at the Ministry of Defense (1991-1997), including under the government of Alain Juppé, before directing a few months the cabinet of the Minister of Defense, Alain Richard . For many years to learn the mysteries of the striking force and the restructuring of the armaments industries, before being plunged into the complexity of civil nuclear. In 1998, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin appointed him to the head of EDF, while the group was shaken by an open war between its president and its director general.
change of status of the Company
The electrical program is completed, 58 reactors are in service and François Roussely seeks to open the tricolor giant internationally. With various fortunes, since he must start to settle the expensive adventures of EDF in Argentina and Brazil. It mainly targets Europe, where the opening of the market accelerates, chaining the acquisition of the British London Electricity and Eastern Electricity, and the acquisition of 45 % of the German ENBW. But the hostile opa on Montedison is another matter, and EDF will not control the number two Italian electricity in 2011, after tight negotiations with Rome.
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