Gilbert Degrémont

Gilbert Degrémont (1908 in Le Cateau, France - November 22, 1974 in Val d'Oise, France) was a French water treatment expert and the founder of Degrémont SA, a water treatment company.

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He studied agronomy at the Institute of Agronomy in Rennes in 1927.

After working with his father Émile, and his brother Étienne in the industrial foundry business in Le Cateau, he succeeded in the iron filtering process of Saigon waters in 1933, before founding his company in 1939 at Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts de Seine), with offices in Paris, and workshops in Levallois-Perret. After WWII, he succeeded in filtering the water of St Etienne (2000 m³/hour) and stared approaching the international market. He moved the company to its newly built headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, where it is still located today.

The company won a water treatment contract for Cairo, followed by many large water treatment contracts such as Tehran, Jakarta, Lima, and many major cities worldwide between 1950 and 1970.

He retired from the company he founded in 1972, after it merged with SGEA, later known as Lyonnaise des eaux.

He designed the company's dove logo that is still the trademark of the company. SUEZ, the parent company of Degrémont, planned to rename the company to "Ondeo" in the early 2000's, decided to keep the Degrémont name after protests from around the world. Degrémont is associated with water treatment, and to many countries in the 1950s, it was associated with modernity and better health for the population, hence the popularity of the name. The company is very French in its working culture, and is effectively run by white, male, middle-aged polytechniciens with no diversity (Thierry Mallet is the current CEO and Jean-Louis Chaussade is the President). This has meant that the company has struggled in Anglo-Saxon markets which do not rely on networks, but more on capabilities.

References

• Degrémont