He was a student at the École polytechnique, where he graduated in 1949 as an engineer of bridges and road construction.
From 1954 to 1960 he worked on public projects in Guinea, as an expert for the road programs of Brazil and Peru.
He left them in 1994 to take the chair of the National Council of French Employers (CNPF, old name of Medef).
He was a member of the Belgian business club Cercle de Lorraine.
In 1995 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM), "for service to Australian-French relations, particularly in the business sphere".