After twelve seasons at PSG, Jean-Claude Blanc, 59, will join Ineos in February 2023. The former CEO of Roland-Garros or ASO will become the general manager of Ineos Sport and will supervise the entire sports portfolio of the group founded by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
“I am delighted to welcome Jean-Claude with his many years of experience in different sports,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. We have big ambitions for all our sports teams with a particular ambition to raise our standards in football and Jean-Claude will bring his entrepreneurial and innovative flair to all our teams. »
One of England’s richest men, 70, whose personal fortune is $13.5 billion according to Forbes magazine’s 2022 ranking, started out as a chemical engineer before becoming a CEO. ‘company. In 1998, the native of the Manchester region founded the chemical group Ineos, of which he is the CEO and still owns two thirds.
This strange five-letter acronym has several meanings. Derived from INspec Ethylene Oxide and Specialties, Ratcliffe’s previous venture, it is also a contraction of the Latin Ineo (beginning) and the Greek Neos (new). For the company, it symbolizes “the dawn of something new and innovative”.
In two decades, and thanks to numerous acquisitions, Ineos will become one of the petrochemical giants in Europe, present in many markets ranging from fuels to construction, including pharmaceuticals, packaging and automotive. , with the recent production of the 4 x 4 Grenadier. The group is established in 29 countries on 194 sites and employs nearly 20,000 people.
Sport, “a passion, which can also have repercussions”
But the brand founded by “Dr No”, one of the nicknames of the discreet Ratcliffe, decried for his assumed harshness and who has a knack for raising environmentalists’ hackles, is best known for its investment in sport: athletics, sailing, Formula 1 , rugby, cycling or football… A great range.
In 2019, Kenyan cross-country skier Eliud Kipchoge became the first man under 2 hours in a marathon (unapproved record at 1h59′40′’) during the company-funded Ineos 1:59 Challenge. On the water, Ineos Britannia dreams of winning the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024. In the pits, Ineos is a partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. In ovaly, the firm is linked to the All Blacks and all the New Zealand national teams.
Since May 1, 2019, Ineos has also written about the outfits of the cyclists of the former Sky, which has since won only one Tour de France (Bernal in 2019) after crushing the competition for almost ten years . On the football side, the brand first bought the Lausanne Sports club in 2017 before setting its sights on OGC Nice in the summer of 2019. Not far from Monaco, where Ratcliffe is a tax exile and in a region where the most of the Team’s cyclists…
After failing to conquer Chelsea when Russian Roman Abrahamovic was forced to put the Blues up for sale due to an invasion of Ukraine, the British magnate is now looking to Manchester United, the club of his heart. “We put aside some investments for sport because we can afford it. It’s a small proportion, these are exciting challenges and we take pleasure, he explained when acquiring the OGCN. It’s just a passion, but we can also have spin-offs. For example, we are building a model car (Editor’s note: the 4 x 4 Grenadier released last spring). People will need to recognize the Ineos brand before signing a check to buy a car. Our presence in the sport gives us this advantage…”