Paris La Défense, the public and commercial body in charge of the development, management and promotion of the La Défense business district in France, has elected a new chairman following the death of Patrick Devedjian.
The new incumbent is Georges Siffredi, who becomes chairman of Paris La Défense and of the Hauts-de-Seine Department.
Armenia-born Devedjian died in a Nanterre hospital just outside Paris on 28 March, three days after announcing he had caught coronavirus. He was 75 years old at the time. A close adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy from the 1990s onwards, he spent much of his career as a prominent politician in France's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.
Siffredi said: 'To succeed Patrick Devedjian is a great honour and a real challenge. He was passionate about La Défense. President of EPAD, then of Defacto, and finally of Paris La Défense, he worked to modernise the business district, breaking with the functionalist vision, to make it a district to live in.
'He was also keen to re-weave the link with the territory and its elected representatives, who were placed back at the centre of governance with the creation, under his decisive impetus, of the new local public establishment.
'His efforts have borne fruit, since Paris La Défense is now the fourth most attractive business district in the world, as the latest EY - ULI barometer of business districts has just shown.
'But many challenges remain to be met, including environmental issues and the crisis we are currently experiencing, the full consequences of which we do not yet know. We will have to continue the strong investment policy already underway, while rethinking the business district's economic model, which has necessarily been impacted by the situation.
'I am proud to take up these challenges with the teams at Paris La Défense and its CEO, Marie-Célie Guillaume.'
Siffredi, a member of France's Les Républicains party (LR), is also vice-president of the Metropole of Grand Paris and of the public institution Vallée Sud Grand Paris.
