The president of the French Football Federation, at the heart of a controversy which caused his withdrawal, is also the founder of the agri-food group “Le Graët”. This group is currently led by his daughter, Valérie. But who is Valérie Le Graët?
Noël Le Graët makes headlines in the press. After a series of controversies, in particular accusations of inappropriate behavior towards employees of the French Football Federation, the strong man of tricolor football had very awkward words towards Zinédine Zidane, which ended up causing him to be withdrawn during of an exceptional executive committee on January 11, 2023. Former mayor of Guingamp and president of the local club, Noël Le Graët is also the founder of the agri-food group of the same name. A name that continues to be held high by his daughter Valérie, who took over the reins of the family business 8 years ago.
A graduate of Science Po, leader of the “le Graët” group, Valérie is a model of success. Elder of Carole and Servane, she is at the head of more than 800 employees. “I was almost born in Guingamp, my parents came back there when I was three months old. I did all my schooling there, my children were born in Pabu,” she told Ouest France. Valérie is the wife of Laurent Grégoire, an artistic agent (he represents artists like Gims or Omar SY). She is the mother of 4 children and shares her life between Paris and Guingamp. Valérie is a woman close to her family and her region, Brittany. The values that framed her childhood are very present and she wishes to pass them on: “I try to bequeath what was their way of being to my children: their peasant good sense, their character which was sometimes ruined, their fragility and their simplicity.” she says. She has kept in touch with her former teachers but is especially inspired by Andrée and René, her grandparents.
Valérie Le Graët in the footsteps of her father
On Saturday November 23, 2019 at the town hall of Guingamp, Valérie le Graët was decorated with the Legion of Honor by the former President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand and raised to the rank of knight. “It’s a light that is astonishing perhaps, no doubt, without caricaturing the moment, because we women are a little less subject to institutional and official recognition and sometimes we are not even in the “idea that we can deserve them” she explains to Ouest France. The one who is proud to be rewarded like her husband and her father will she take the same path?