Death of Serge Michel

19 March 2019 - 5:45 pm - Events - France

VINCI is very sad to announce the death of Serge Michel, the former chairman of our group (formerly SGE) and a member of our Board of Directors.

Serge Michel passed on 15 March 2019, aged 92. His entire career was spent in the building and public works sector. In 1981, Compagnie Saint-Gobain acquired from Compagnie Générale d’Electricité its majority stake in SGE – Société Générale d’Entreprises, which became VINCI in 2000. At the time, Serge Michel was head of Sogea and of the Saint-Gobain company-sector branch. He was the natural choice to become chairman and CEO of SGE and he efficiently set about restructuring and reorganising the set of companies, which became one of the French leaders in building and public works.

In 1991, Serge Michel left all operational responsibilities in the SGE Group, which by then was a subsidiary of Compagnie Générale des Eaux. However, he remained a member of its Board of Directors until 2006. Throughout those years, he never ceased to work for the Group and give it the full benefit of his expertise of the industry and its players.

Once he had left behind his operational responsibilities, Serge Michel – always the entrepreneur – set up Soficot, which worked in three activities: document management, catering (including Paris’s well-known Pavillon Ledoyen), and consultancy for companies, to which he brought his experience and knowledge of the business world, as well as his exceptional intuition.

Xavier Huillard, chairman and CEO of VINCI, said: “Serge Michel was an exceptional entrepreneur who never stopped learning. He knew how to build relations, which enabled him to find the best talents, to relate and to exchange, and always with great kindness.”

VINCI and all its people would like to express their recognition of Serge Michel and pass on their sincere sympathies to his family and friends.

 

About VINCI
VINCI is a global player in concessions, energy and construction, employing 280,000 people in more than 120 countries. We design, finance, build and operate infrastructure and facilities that help improve daily life and mobility for all. Because we believe in all-round performance, we are committed to operating in an environmentally, socially responsible and ethical manner. And because our projects are in the public interest, we consider that reaching out to all our stakeholders and engaging in dialogue with them is essential in the conduct of our business activities. Based on that approach, VINCI’s ambition is to create long-term value for its customers, shareholders, employees, partners and society in general.