Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, in March of 1953, Jean-Dominique Senard is the son of a former French diplomat. He spent much of his early life living in French embassies around the world as his father was moved from post to post. He joined The Paris Boys Choir (Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly) as a child and received classical music training from Louis Prudhomme Senard.
He had several high ranking corporate positions before moving to Michelin in 2005 and then to the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance as CEO in 2019.
Training
Senard attended Paris’s Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) where he gained an MA in law.
Career
After graduating, Senard’s corporate career began with oil giant, Total S.A. At Total, he held a number of management positions in the areas of finance and operations between 1979 and 1987. He them moved to construction materials group, Saint Gobain in 1987 where he remained for 9 years. There, he initially worked in their treasury management division before being appointed deputy-director in February 1988 and then director (of cash and financing) in January 1991.
In 1996, he joined the aluminium conglomerate, Pechiney, in the role of CFO as well as sitting on their executive committee. Pechiney was taken over by mining firm Alcan in 2003 and Senard took the role of chairman and continued to sit on the executive committee.
Michelin appointed Senard as their CFO in March of 2005 and, after the accidental drowning of Michelin’s managing partner and co-CEO, Édouard Michelin, in 2006, Senard became managing partner of Michelin as well as the head of financial affairs, legal services, plans and results. Under senard’s leadership, Michelin saw a 43% increase in net income in 2017 to 1.7 billion Euros.
Following the scandal surrounding Carlos Ghosn and his subsequent resignation, Senard was appointed CEO of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance on the 24th January, 2019.
Anecdotes
Whilst serving as French ambassador to The Netherlands, Senard’s father was taken hostage in the attack on the French embassy on September 13, 1974. The attack, led by the Japanese Red Army and claimed to have been orchestrated by Carlos the Jackal, ended after 4 days with the French government releasing a prisoner and paying a ransom of $300,000. Senard’s father famously refused to leave the embassy with his hands in the air, and the terrorists allowed him to place his hands behind his back instead.
