A year after Jacques R. Saadé’s disappearance and the international tribute paid to the Founding President of the CMA CGM Group, the city of Marseilles has decided to name one of the city’s emblematic boulevards after him in his honor. Stretching along the Mediterranean Sea from the MUCEM, the city's most famous museum, to the Group's head office, the Boulevard Jacques R. Saadé was inaugurated today by Jean-Claude Gaudin, Mayor of Marseilles, in the presence of the Saadé family and many employees of the CMA CGM Group.
Many public figures were present to honor the memory of Jacques R. Saadé, such as Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region; the Prefect Pierre Dartout, representing the French State; Rami Adwan, the Ambassador of Lebanon in France; many elected officials and corporate representatives.
An exceptional visionary and unique entrepreneur, Jacques R. Saadé made the CMA CGM Group a world leader in container shipping while maintaining its family dimension, its human values and a strong anchorage in Marseilles. This profound link between Jacques R. Saadé and Marseilles was illustrated from the moment he arrived there in 1978. Believing in the city’s unique potential, he dared to make it the starting point for an exceptional global entrepreneurial adventure.
For over 40 years, The Group has been constantly involved in the region’s development in many fields, particularly in architecture, with the construction of a Tower which has become a symbol of the reconquest of the Euroméditerranée district. The Group’s experts are also fostering multiple educational and entrepreneurial initiatives to raise the youth’s awareness of shipping and logistics and to help local businesses by offering them the benefits of CMA CGM’s international network. Today led by Rodolphe Saadé and with 110,000 employees worldwide, the Group continues to invest in Marseilles and its region with the aim of making them a major economic center.
At the inauguration of Boulevard Jacques R. Saadé, Rodolphe Saadé, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, declared: “You have honored a man and a company by naming a boulevard after him. Jacques Saadé demonstrated that, from France, from this city, you could be an entrepreneur and build a world leader. He gave this country one of its finest industrial flagships. Rest assured that we will always remain committed to Marseilles, for a stronger, more dynamic and more inclusive territory.”
Jean-Claude Gaudin, Mayor of Marseilles, noted: “By giving the name of Jacques Saadé to one of Marseilles’ boulevards, we show that the 21st century is rich in great men that our city wants to honor, that Marseilles does not forget him, and that in the decades to come, many will remember him. With the Jacques Saadé Boulevard, of which the Tower is the lighthouse, Marseilles indelibly inscribes his masterful work, which is exemplary for many ambitious entrepreneurs, in the urban history of our city.”
Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, said: “The greatness of his life, of his human adventure, is at the height of this tribute. He was a man of projects and he was a man of intuition. And it was here, in Marseilles, that everything played out under his leadership. We can be proud of and grateful to Jacques Saadé. Today, he is part, irrevocably and definitively, of the handful of immense Marseillais that no one will ever forget.”
