Jules Mény - CEO of the CFP (Compagnie Françaises des pétroles)

Born September 17, 1890 in Paris. École Polytechnique, engineer at the Corps des mines. First engaged in artillery, then in aviation as a flight commander during the First World War. Engineer in Douai at the end of the conflict, he was recruited by Ernest Mercier in 1920 to head the Steaua romana, a Romanian oil company. He refreshed its methods and tools, notably by traveling to the United States, where he sent engineers to familiarize them with American petroleum. In 1928 he was called by Ernest Mercier to head the Compagnie Française des pétroles (CFP) with the position of managing director. It is at the forefront of the Group's actions to assert all of the CFP's rights in Iraq Petroleum (1928). Landing with his plane in Iraq, he invites himself to meetings to which the English sometimes forgot to summon the other companies. He oversaw the construction of the Kirkuk-Mediterranean pipeline (1929-1934), imposing a route leading to Tripoli, under French mandate. Under his direction are built the refineries of Normandy and Provence. In 1939, he was called by the government, to Air HQG, to the London air mission, then to Air manufacturing (1940). Then he took over as head of the Organizing Committee for Liquid Fuels. At the end of 1940, he was chosen as CEO (function created by the brand new law on companies). He made the necessary arrangements for the CFP to follow its operations from the United States, in particular taking part in the capital increases of the IPC prompted by the English Engaged in the Resistance, he was wanted by the Germans; he surrenders himself in August 1943. Sent to Plansee, he escapes but is caught near the Swiss border; he is then sent to Dachau. During a transfer of prisoners to Buchenwald, he was apparently executed like other prisoners on April 21, 1945 by the SS, panicked by the advance of Russian troops.