The Medef did not follow the trend of the unions, where Sophie Binet took the head of the CGT and Marylise Léon that of the CFDT: employers will not be led by a woman. Tenacious, Dominique Carlac’h has tried twice to take the lead of the organization. In vain. It was indeed Patrick Martin who won the election for the presidency of Medef this Thursday, July 6, after a campaign without much turmoil.
Already a candidate in the last election in 2018, she had “loved this first campaign”, she confided to Figaro last March. But, for lack of votes, she had preferred to line up behind Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, obtaining in exchange the post of vice-president and spokesperson for Medef. “I entrusted him with the mission of carrying the voice of Medef because I knew his strong capacity for embodiment, the incarnation of a modern image of Medef”, explains Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. An image that is no stranger to his career, which is rather atypical within the employers’ organization.
Because Dominique Carlac’h is certainly a determined entrepreneur, who runs an innovation consulting firm. But the 50-year-old is also a former high-level athlete. A past that gave him a taste for competition, and taught him that to get there, “you have to have fighting spirit and humility”. Daughter of teachers, she studied at Sciences Po Grenoble in parallel with her sports career. Then, very young, she chose entrepreneurship in innovation consulting. It was under the chairmanship of Pierre Gattaz that she joined the Medef, in particular to make the voices of women heard. The creation of Femmes du Medef on her initiative is also one of her prides, a way for her to move the lines from the inside and to work for the feminization of the institution.
It is quite natural that once he arrived at the vice-presidency of the employers’ organization, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux puts him in charge of subjects related to new entrepreneurial responsibilities: sport in the company, diversity, corporate social responsibility , inclusion… She was also entrusted with the co-negotiation of an agreement on teleworking, “which she carried out very well”, recalls the outgoing president.
While, almost from 2018, Patrick Martin is identified as the designated successor to Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, nothing undermines the ambition of the former athlete to take first place. With a slogan: “the desire to undertake together”. Its program is based on the articulation between competitiveness and attractiveness, which “will constitute the economic influence of our companies”. Because she is convinced: the company is a protective structure that must be “re-enchanted”.
Since her candidacy announcement, she has pleaded for the organization of a televised debate. A proposal which his rival does not see the point of, but which he ends up accepting. Thus, two weeks before the election, the candidates clashed on the BFM business channel for an unprecedented televised duel in this type of election. And if the campaign took place without too much wave, this sequence will have been the occasion of a targeted attack by its competitor against the running mate of its rival. Because very early in the competition, Dominique Carlac’h benefited from the rallying of the two other candidates who gathered their sponsorships: Pierre Brajeux and Guillaume Cairoux. A spade that the candidate sweeps with a “it’s me the candidate”.
Despite her status as an outsider, she led her campaign with determination, winning the support of big names in the French economic world, from Renault boss Jean-Dominique Senard to that of Orange Christel Heydemann via the former leader by Publicis Maurice Levy. And if her efforts were not enough, she ends this campaign with the conviction that she has managed to “install the match”.