Serge Dassault

Serge Dassault
Dassault in 2016
Member of theFrench SenateforEssonne
In office 1 October 2004 – 1 October 2017
Succeeded by	Laure Darcos
MayorofCorbeil-Essonnes
In office 1995–2009
Preceded by	Marie-Anne Lesage
Succeeded by	Jean-Pierre Bechter
Personal details
Born	Serge Paul André Bloch (1925-04-04)4 April 1925 Paris, France
Died	28 May 2018(2018-05-28)(aged 93) Paris, France
Resting place	Passy Cemetery,Paris
Spouse	Nicole Raffel ​ (m.1950)​
Children	Olivier Dassault Laurent Dassault Thierry Dassault Marie-Hélène Dassault
Parent(s)	Marcel Dassault Madeleine Minckès
Relatives	Darius Paul Dassault(uncle)
Education	Lycée Janson-de-Sailly Lycée Saint-Louis
Alma mater	École Polytechnique SUPAERO HEC Paris
Occupation	Businessman

Serge Dassault(French:[sɛʁʒdaso];bornSerge Paul André Bloch;4 April 1925 – 28 May 2018) was a French engineer, businessman and politician.He was the chairman and chief executive officer ofDassault Group,and a conservative politician. According toForbes,Dassault's net worth was estimated in 2016 at US$15 billion.

Early life and education

He was the younger son ofMadeleine Dassault(néeMinckès)andMarcel Dassault(born Marcel Ferdinand Bloch),from whom he inherited theDassault Group.Both his parents were of Jewish heritage, but later converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1929, his father founded what is nowDassault Aviation.During the Second World War, he was jailed when his father was sent toBuchenwaldfor refusing any cooperation from his company,Bordeaux-Aéronautique,directed by Henri Déplante, André Curvale andClaude de Cambronne,with the German aviation industry.

He studied at theLycée Janson-de-Saillyin the16th arrondissement of Pariswhere he received hisbaccalauréat.He earned engineering degrees from theÉcole Polytechnique(class of 1946) andSupaéro(class of 1951). In 1963, he received anExecutive MBAfromHEC Paris.

Business career

After his father's death in 1986, Serge Dassault continued developing the company, with the help of CEOsCharles EdelstenneandÉric Trappier.His group also owned the newspaperLe Figaro.In December 1998, he was sentenced to two years' probation in the BelgianAgusta scandal,and was fined 60,000 Belgian francs (about €1,500).

According toForbes,the Dassault family also owns a winery, property in Paris, and an art auction house.

Political career

Dassault was a member of theUnion for a Popular Movementpolitical party, as was his sonOlivier,who was adeputyin theNational Assembly.He was a former mayor of the city ofCorbeil-Essonnes,a southern suburb of Paris.

In 2004, he became asenator,and in that position, he was an outspoken advocate of conservative positions on economic and employment issues, claiming that France's taxes and workforce regulations ruin its entrepreneurs.In 2005, he inaugurated the €2 millionIslamic cultural centre(comprising a mosque) in his city of Corbeil-Essonnes.In November 2012, responding to theAyrault government's plan to legalisesame-sex marriage in France,he controversially said, during an interview forFrance Culture,that authorising it would cause "no more renewal of the population. [...] We'll have a country of homosexuals. And so in ten years there'll be nobody left. It's stupid".

Personal life and death

Grave of Serge Dassault in Paris

Dassault married Nicole Raffel on 5 July 1950. They had four children:Olivier,Laurent,Thierry,and Marie-Hélène.

He died suddenly in his office at the Dassault Group headquarters in Paris on 28 May 2018, from heart failure at the age of 93.

See also

• List of French people by net worth
• The World's Billionaires

External links

• Serge Dassault and family–Forbesprofile