Patrick Kron

Patrick Kron
Born	(1953-09-26) 26 September 1953 Paris, France
Alma mater	École Polytechnique Mines ParisTech
Occupation	CEO of Alstom

Patrick Kron (born 26 September 1953 in Paris) is the chairman and chief executive (Président-directeur général) of the French engineering conglomerate Alstom. Alstom is most well known for its Eurostar and TGV trains, and is headquartered at Levallois-Perret.

Early life

Kron is the son of Polish-Jewish^[1] immigrants who survived the Nazi concentration camps and detention at the end of the 1940s, when they moved to France. While the five-strong immigrant family lived in a single room on the Rue de la Goutte-d'Or in Paris he initially found work in the garment industry. Patrick Kron started his education after high school at Collège-lycée Jacques-Decour as a young boy at the elite university École Polytechnique in Paris. He attended also the then called École Nationale Supérieure des Mines.^[2]

Career

He started his career at the French Ministry of Industry (Minister of the Economy, Finances and Industry, the Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et du Commerce extérieur), where he worked from 1979 to 1984. From 1979 to 1983 he was stationed at the Direction régionale de l'Industrie, de la Recherche et de l'Environnement (DRIRE) in the Pays de la Loire.

From 1984 to 1997 he worked for Pechiney, becoming president of the Electrometallurgy Division, and later chairman of the board of the Carbone Lorraine Company from 1993 to 1997.

Alstom

He became chief executive of Alstom on 1 January 2003. He became chairman of Alstom on 11 March 2003.^[3]

Up to 2003 the share price of Alstom had dropped by 90% in two years. In 2003 Alstom had to be restructured to avoid bankruptcy, by selling subsidiaries, and was largely financially rescued by the French government, by buying a 21.3% interest in the company of £1.5 billion, authorised by the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.^[4] In 2004 the company made a net loss of £1.83 billion.

Patrick Kron paid a visit to the president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan in October 2013, and also met Nigerian business leaders and members of the international business community in Lagos. On behalf of Alstom Group, he signed a technical cooperation agreement with Taleveras Group,^[5] which is owned by a Nigerian, Igho Sanomi. "The agreement is for supplies and services for the rehabilitation and capacity expansion of the Afam power station."^[6][7]

Honours

He was awarded the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honour) on 30 September 2004 and became an Officer of National Order of Merit (Ordre national du Mérite) on 18 November 2007.

References

External links

• Alstom