Thierry Desmarest during a general meeting of shareholders of Total, May 29, 2015 in Paris (AFP / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
Former Total boss Thierry Desmarest, who chaired the oil company from 1995 to 2010 then interim in 2014 upon the death of Christophe de Margerie, died on Wednesday at the age of 78, the TotalEnergies group said, confirming information from Le Monde.
During his presidency, the group, which was still called Total, became one of the world’s leading oil companies, but his mandate remains marked by disasters such as the sinking of the Erika in 1999 and the oil spill that followed. as the explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse.
Mr. Desmarest had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for around ten years, according to Le Monde.
“By bringing together Total, Fina and Elf, he is the man who built and made our company a world-class group in the Top 5 majors,” reacted on X the current boss of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné.
“We would not be what we are without his vision and his strategic spirit,” he added, before concluding: “Thank you dear president, thank you Thierry.”
In February 2018, Mr. Desmarest withdrew from the board of directors of the car manufacturer Renault, where he had served since April 2008, “exclusively due to personal and age considerations”.
“At the age of 72, it is normal that I leave the board of directors of the Renault group,” he declared.
Despite the successes in raising Total among the five oil majors, Mr. Desmarest saw his image tarnished by his management of the sinking of the Erika off the coast of Brittany, and the oil spill which followed in December 1999, but also by the explosion of the AZF chemical factory on September 21, 2001 in Toulouse. He was particularly criticized for his technocratic cold reaction to emotion. The AZF explosion left 30 dead and destroyed or damaged nearly 30,000 buildings.
Born on December 18, 1945 in Paris, Mr. Desmarest was the son of a magistrate at the Court of Auditors. He began his career in 1971 at the mines directorate of New Caledonia, before joining the cabinets of Michel d’Ornano and then René Monory in 1975 at the Ministries of Industry and the Economy.
He joined Total in 1981, as deputy director of Total Algeria, then rose through the ranks of the very powerful and profitable exploration-production division: director Latin America and West Africa in 1983, director Americas, France, Far East in 1988 , then general manager in 1989.
Since 2010, he has been honorary president of Total, which became TotalEnergies in 2021, after handing over the presidency to Christophe de Margerie who had already inherited general management in 2007.
An opera and ski enthusiast, Mr. Desmarest was the father of three children.