Pierre Michelin moves closer to the ‘family-origin’ business

Following the publication of Michelin’s first quarter 2022 financial results, group CEO Florent Menegaux commented on the appointment of Pierre Michelin as president of the Michelin family’s Mage-Invest holding company. Mage-Invest holds 4.2 per cent of the shares and 7 per cent of the voting rights of Michelin Group.

“I am very happy to know that the Michelin family continues to invest in Michelin,” Leman Bleu, quoted Menegaux as saying. However, Menegaux also firmly clarified the current place of the family in the governance of the group:

“We are no longer a family business, we are a family-origin business. Today, it is not because you hold 4.2 per cent of the shares that you can decide here or there that you are going to lead Michelin.”

However, Pierre Michelin succeeds Vincent Montagne as head of Mage-Invest. Montagne himself has been appointed as general partner of SAGES, one of the three pillars of the Michelin Group’s governance structure. According to documents published alongside Michelin’s 13 May 2022 annual general meeting, SAGES “plays a key role in manager succession planning and compensation”.

Pierre Michelin, 25, is the third child of Cécile and Édouard Michelin (who tragically died in 2006) and grew up in Auvergne and the United States.

During his career he has worked as a technician and engineer for five years in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance in both factory and R&D settings. Since 2020, he has been managing AW – a lifting equipment business.

Commenting on his appointment as president of Mage-Invest, Le Journal Auto quoted Pierre Michelin as saying: “Faithful to Michelin’s industrial heritage, I will be keen to bring to life the mandate that the members of Mage-Invest have entrusted to me. I wish to continue to act to encourage the development of the group on the long term and the work of the Michelin teams who work every day for its success”.