Clara Gaymard

Clara Gaymard (née Lejeune; born 27 January 1960) is a French businesswoman, official and author. She co-founded RAISE, an investment fund and philanthropic group which promotes entrepreneurial growth. She was the president of GE France from 2006 to 2016 and vice-president of GE International from 2009 to 2016.[1][2]

Clara Gaymard
Glara Gaymard in 2008
Born
Clara Lejeune

(1960-01-27) 27 January 1960
Paris, France
EducationSciences Po, ÉNA
OccupationPresident, and CEO of General Electric France
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1986)​
Children9
Parent(s)Jérôme Lejeune (father)

Education

She received a degree from Sciences Po and is an alumna of the École nationale d'administration.[3]

Career

She served as an administrative officer to the Mayor of Paris from 1982 until 1984, when she went to study at the ENA. On graduating, she became an auditor at the court of auditors, and was appointed advisor for referenda in 1990. Thereafter she was assistant to the head of economic expansion services in Cairo (1991-1993), becoming head of the European Union office (sub-directorate of Europe) at the Directorate of External Economic Relations (DREE) in the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.[4]

In June 1995 she was asked by Colette Codaccioni, the minister for inter-generational cohesion, to direct her office.[5] She the joined the sub-directorate focusing on supporting SMEs and regional action at the DREE (1996-1999), then as the head delegate to SMEs (1999-2003). In 2002, the economy and finance minister, Francis Mer, refused to nominate her to lead the DREE, saying:

Clara, vous avez neuf enfants, un mari qui fait de la politique. Je suis contre. (Clara, you have nine children, a husband in politics. I am against it)[6]

In February she left the DREE being appointed the Goodwill ambassador for International Investment and president of the French Agency for International Investment (AFII).

In September 2006, she joined General Electric, as the CEO and President of GE France, and later, in 2008, as the President of the Region of North Western Europe.[7] While president and CEO of GE France, Clara Gaymard was, in April 2009, appointed the vice-president of GE International in charge of government contracts (GE International for Government Sales and Strategy), then, in August 2010, as vice-president of government and cities.[8]

In 2014, she used her expertise and strong network to argue for the acquisition of Alstom by GE.[9] In 2015, she began an attempt to have a net increase of 1000 jobs, within GE France.[10] She was trying to achieve this, as 10300 people were being let go world-wide and 2000 in France.[11]

In January 2016, after 10 years at General Electric promoting French-American trade and defending industrial jobs in Europe,[12] Gaymard was summoned before the French government to explain why 6,500 jobs were being lost against prior reassurance,[13] and to confirm her immediate departure from the company.[14]

Gaymard's style of management was cited as being liberal and progressive, notably her work for the LGBT community; as she supported the development of the diversity organisation, called GLBTA (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgenre Alliance).[15][16] She signed the charte d’engagement LGBT on behalf of General Electric.[17]

In 2016 Gaymard co-founded the investment fund and philanthropic group Raise,[18] with French businessman Gonzague de Blignières.[19]

Other activities

Parallel to her career, Gaymard was a lecturer in contract and public law, an auditor of the 53rd session of the Institut des hautes études de Défense nationale,[20] and a founding member of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation.

Corporate boards
  • LVMH, Independent Member of the Board (since 2016)[21][22]
  • Bouygues, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2016)[23]
  • Danone, Independent Member of the Board (since 2016)
  • Veolia, Independent Member of the Board (since 2015)[24]

Non-profit organizations

Personal life

Gaymard is the daughter of Professor Jérôme Lejeune, the doctor and geneticist who discovered the chromosomal link of Down Syndrome, and the daughter of Birthe Bringsted. Clara Gaymard is married to Hervé Gaymard, a minister who served Jacques Chirac. The couple have nine children: Philothée, Bérénice, Thaïs, Marie-Lou, Amédée, Eulalie, Faustine, Jérôme-Aristide, Angélico.

Publications

Works by Clara Lejeune:

  • La Vie est un bonheur, Jérôme Lejeune, mon père (Life is a privilege, Jérôme Lejeune, my father), Paris, Critérion, 1997
  • Histoires de femme autres simples bonheurs (The simple pleasures of other women), Paris, Lattès, 1999
  • S'il suffisait d'aimer (If it was enough to love), Paris, Fayard, 2003

Works by Clara Gaymard and her sister Bérénice Bringsted (using the last name of her maternal grandfather):

  • Faut qu'on parle! (We need to talk), Paris, Plon, 2016[27]

Distinctions

Notes and references
  1. "CV de Clara Gaymard". GE. Archived from the original on 11 March 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  2. "Après neuf années à la tête de GE France, Clara Gaymard est remplacée par Mark Hutchinson, actuel patron de GE Europe" (in French). Les Échos. February 2016.
  3. "Clara Gaymard". LSA Conso. 20 February 2013.
  4. "Clara Gaymard: son parcours et sa carrière administrative". Au Féminin.
  5. Clara Gaymard (in French), Les Echos, 20 May 2009
  6. Gaymard, Clara (29 June 2017), Le jour où un ministre a refusé ma candidature à cause de mes neufs [sic] enfants, Paris Match, p. 122
  7. "Clara Gaymard, dirigeante de GE France, vue par la presse anglo-saxonne". La Tribune. 5 May 2014.
  8. "Reprise d'Alstom : Clara Gaymard, le poisson-pilote de General Electric". Le Monde. 16 June 2014.
  9. "Mère de neuf enfants, cette énarque a imposé son expertise et son entregent pour favoriser la prise de pouvoir de GE sur Alstom". Liberation.
  10. INFO OBS. Alstom: 10.300 emplois menacés (in French), L'Obs, 26 August 2015, retrieved 19 October 2018.
  11. "Rachat d'Alstom par GE: plus de 10 000 emplois supprimés?", L'Expansion (in French), 26 August 2015, retrieved 19 October 2018
  12. Les réseaux de Clara Gaymard
  13. "Entretien avec M. Jeffrey IMMELT". Archived from the original on 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2019-07-27.
  14. En pleine polémique, Clara Gaymard quitte General Electric (in French), L'Obs, 31 January 2016, retrieved 19 October 2018
  15. Charte d'Engagement LGBT+ de l'Autre Cercle (in French), L'Autre Cercle, 21 May 2015, retrieved 19 October 2018
  16. Clara Gaymard, une femme engagée pour la diversité - Monde des grandes écoles et universités (in French), Monde des grandes écoles et universités, 23 November 2015, retrieved 19 October 2018
  17. 6e Prix de la Diversité, Fondaton Arborus, archived from the original on 2016-02-02, retrieved 2019-07-27
  18. "Avec Raise, des parrains de choix pour les start-up: Accor, Axa, Michelin..." (in French). Challenges. Retrieved 8 March 2016..
  19. "Gonzague de Blignières, Raise Investissement: "Un homme se construit par ce qu'il donne, pas par ce qu'il gagne"" (in French). Le nouvel Economiste | Politique & Economie, Entreprises & Management, Art de vivre & Style de vie. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  20. Hecketsweiler, Chloé (October 2010), Les réseaux de Clara Gaymard, L'Expansion, retrieved 31 January 2013
  21. "LVMH: Clara Gaymard bientôt nommée au conseil d'administration" (in French). La Tribune. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  22. "Board of Directors". LVMH. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  23. "Conseil d'administration de Bouygues, Clara Gaymard". bouygues.com.
  24. Board of Directors Veolia
  25. "Members" (PDF). Trilateral Commission. April 2013.
  26. French-American Foundation France: Gouvernance Archived 2015-12-26 at the Wayback Machine.
  27. "Faut qu'on parle!": un livre mère-fille de Clara Gaymard et Bérénice Bringsted, RTL, 23 May 2016, retrieved 18 September 2016
  28. Lejeune Gaymard Sig.ra Clara - Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (in Italian), quirinale.it
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