Francis Mer is a French businessman, industrialist and politician. A former alumnus of the Ecole polytechnique

École Polytechnique

The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

, he was hired in 1970 by the Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain S.A. is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of construction and high-performance materials.The company has its head...

 group. In 1982, he became chairman of the board of Pont-à-Mousson SA. In the 1980s, he joined the Saint-Simon Foundation

Saint-Simon Foundation

The Saint-Simon Foundation was a French think tank created in 1982 by the historian François Furet. It gathered intellectuals and businessmen until its dissolving in 1999. It was a member of the The Hague Club international network of think-tanks...

 think-tank.

Following the 1986 legislative elections

French legislative election, 1986

The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the 8th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of Party-list proportional representation.Since the 1981 election of François...

 and the nomination of the conservative Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac

Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

 as Prime Minister, he was nominated as president of the new Usinor

Usinor

Usinor was a French steel making group formed in 1948. The group was merged with Sacilor in 1986, becoming Usinor-Sacilor and was privatised in 1995, and renamed Usinor in 1997....

 group. He was reelected to his position in 1995, upon the group's privatization, and renamed the group Arcelor

Arcelor

Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004...

 in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was Minister of Finances in Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...

's conservative government.

Since 2005, he seats on the board of directors of Vale Inco, which benefited from an important tax rebate to exploit a nickel mine in New Caledonia, while he was Minister of Finances.

In June 2009, he became chairman of the board of Safran

SAFRAN

Safran is a French conglomerate involved in defense, aerospace propulsion and equipment, and security. It is the result of a merger between the propulsion and aerospace equipment group SNECMA and the defense conglomerate SAGEM. Its headquarters are located in Paris.The name Safran, literally...

.

Note