Le Figaro: ""I have an extremely strong anchored hope, in the name of my faith": Hubert de Boisredon, entrepreneur in search of meaning".

Hubert de Boisredon, CEO of Armor Group. OIOO studio

In the Boisredon family, I ask for the father. Hubert, 59. "You know, my son has already had a full page in your newspaper! Now it's his turn to enjoy his moment of glory. There doesn't seem to be any hint of jealousy behind this introductory remark. On the contrary, it's with pride in his eyes that Armor Group's CEO opens the discussion with a family chapter. From the Nantes headquarters of the international industrial company, he talks about his grandson, his two nephews he took in for fifteen years, and of course his four children. Each more brilliant than the last.

"We didn't push them to be the best, we wanted to give them as much love and balance as possible", Hubert de Boisredon emphasizes. A philosophy that the entrepreneur applies himself in all areas of his life. Success and achievement, yes. But what for? The question has been on his mind ever since he graduated from high school. After a powerful spiritual experience in which the devout Catholic discovered that he was loved unconditionally by God, he made his first fork in the road. At Ginette, he left math speciale to join a business preparatory program. "I was told to do math sup because it was the best...". He then entered HEC and left to study in New York.

"The purpose of business is to maximize profit for its shareholders," he reads on the first page of a textbook. Another anxiety attack. " Does the purpose of my life have to be to maximize profit?" He was soon on his way to a nunnery in the Bronx, where he met Mother Teresa. The end of his American sojourn was marked by some improbable days. Serving soup kitchens and visiting young AIDS sufferers, followed by a finance course on Wall Street. Back in France, the erudite student could have continued with military service, as family tradition suggested. Then he could have joined a bank, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, an illustrious banker under Napoleon III. But "nothing in my life went according to plan". He left for Chile to launch a microcredit bank to help the poorest of the poor. There he met his future wife. Tears of tenderness flow down his cheeks.

In March, the lovebirds returned to the land of their romance. There, they reunited with their friends, from the most affluent to the most destitute. The influential director also presented his first book translated into Spanish (1). Éditions Mame gave him the opportunity to write again. In Déserter ou s'engager? Lettre aux jeunes qui veulent changer le monde, released in September, the man who hadn't made an intercontinental trip in four years was invited to comment on the speech made by young graduates of AgroParisTech in 2022. They had denounced the ecological devastation to which their training had contributed.

On the spot, this admirer of Pope Francis found the scene shocking, but then changed his mind. "Didn't my quest for meaning push me out of the system myself when I left for Chile?" he asked. " But in a second stage, it's interesting to transcribe this into responsibilities that help steer the economy towards greater ecology." He's trying to do just that with Armor and its 2,500 employees. "It's a normal company that makes ink or consumables. It's not necessarily very ecological from the outset. It's exciting to be at the heart of the system, trying to make it evolve."

After turning around the group he has led for twenty years, to the point of buying out one of its American competitors two years ago, the CEO decided to devote a third of earnings to support committed activities such as the collection of recycled cartridges. "We have to accept this tension between generating profit and making a commitment to the environment and society. It's not easy, but it's beneficial. Already in the 2000s, when he was in charge of one of the three divisions of the Rhodia chemical group in Hong Kong, he defended ethical choices in the face of competitive imperatives. " He has a real talent for vision," observes Wouaïd Nouri, Administrative and Financial Director at Armor, about his "n+1", whom he had known at Rhodia before being poached.

Iara Le Carbonnier, executive assistant, also appreciates her boss's "management of trust" : "His actions as a director, public figure or family are really consistent." To keep his feet on the ground, the manager can count on Louis Faure. Their intergenerational friendship gave rise to the Eotekum consultancy, one of whose activities is to help each other embody a leadership aligned with their values.

When the two men see each other, it's always during a tea party: "Hubert has a particular affection for flans", confides his thirtysomething accomplice humorously. An anecdote that the gourmand assumes, preferring sweet cakes to the savoury game he hunts in his spare time. "As they say, joy is celebrated with a good meal. And when you've failed, you need to regain your strength," quips his wife Marianne. The difficulties are also present in his attempt to launch an innovative photovoltaic solution. Hubert de Boisredon regrets not having received enough support. Despite his Jesuit sensibilities, he says things. Nor does he hesitate to publicly criticize his city's multicolored Christmas decorations, even if it means explaining himself to the Mayor of Nantes by telephone.

His ideals don't make him a carefree man. Or a blissful utopian. "I think we're heading for difficult times, socially, internationally and ecologically, with crises that are set to get worse. But deep down, I have an extremely strong sense of hope, in the name of my faith", concludes this religious boss realistically.

Read the article on www.lefigaro.fr

By Laurène Trillard

Published May 19, 2024