Biography

 

A graduate of the École Polytechnique (1943) and engineering graduate from Ponts et Chaussées (class of ‘48), and also a graduate of the École  supérieure d’électricité and the Institut  des  sciences politiques, Christian Beullac entered the Ministry of Industry in 1949.Deputy Director of Electricity at the Ministry of Industry (1949-1952), member of the Ministry of Industry cabinet on energy matters (1954-1955), he was also a general rapporteur of the Energy Commission for the 2^nd Plan (1952-1954).

In 1955, he joined Renault, where he held different positions up to 1976:chief executive for production in 1964, chief executive for industrial production in 1967, Deputy CEO in 1971, CEO in 1976.  Raymond  Barre, relying on his experience of industrial relations, put him in charge of the Ministry of Labour in his first two governments (1976- 1978),  at a time of crisis marked by unemployment and industrial restructuring.  As Minister of Education from 1978 to 1981, he brought sustained impetus to relations between schools and business, to the apprenticeship system, to initial training for primary school teachers, to ideas on the professionalisation of universities or on the shift towards institutional autonomy.

Bowing out of political life in 1981, in 1982 he became CEO of the international engineering firm Euréquip. He was a member of numerous associations, amongst them ASIE (analysis of industrial and energy strategies).  He died suddenly in Paris on June 16, 1986.

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