Pierre Falcone
Pierre Falcone (born 19 March 1954 in Algiers) is a French businessman, the Chairman of Pierson Capital Group with activities in real estate development, transportation infrastructure and oil services in Africa, Latin America and China.
Early life
Pierre Falcone is the son of Pierre Falcone senior, a French entrepreneur who created Papa Falcone, a fully integrated operation in the fish industry in Algeria.
Born in Algeria, Pierre Falcone and his parents moved to France when he was eight years old. His parents moved from Algeria along with other French citizens when the country chose independence in 1962[1] (Independence of Algeria).
Pierre Falcone studied Law and Economics at the University of Aix-en-Provence (France) from 1973 to 1975.
International career
Latin America
Pierre Falcone arrived in Brazil in 1977 at the age of 23, he soon started a business in trading agricultural products.
He developed a wide portfolio of clients and partners throughout South America in the following years which led him to represent several French and Chinese companies in countries such as Brazil or Mexico.
China
Pierre Falcone moved to China in 1988 where he later founded and headquartered his company Pierson Capital Asia.
Pierre Falcone started his Chinese operations with consulting services for leading European companies looking to establish themselves in China. He negotiated the first insurance authorization granted by China to a Western company for French giant AXA as well as the involvement of Aerospatiale in the making of the first Chinese communication satellite.
Africa
Pierre Falcone has been involved in several major projects throughout the continent.
In 1993, the government from Angola was facing a guerrilla movement backed up by South Africa called the UNITA. The Unita was then labeled as a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council.[2] Pierre Falcone managed to negotiate the financing of the then besieged legitimate government of Angola. This financing was achieved in exchange for the future oil production of Angola and saved the Angolan government from certain collapse.
The delivery of weapons to the Angolan government led to a trial known as Angolagate in France, which was due to political strife within the French government at the time. In 2011, the charges against Falcone were dropped by an appeals court after he had served half of his sentence in a French prison.[3] The appeals court acknowledged that Falcone had been officially mandated by the legitimate Angolan government to acquire arms as well as food and medicine.[4][5]
Pierson Capital Group
The group of Pierre Falcone invests in hotels, real estate developments, agriculture and agroindustrial projects, oil, gas, and personal authentification systems. Pierson Capital Group[6] landmark projects include:
- the East-West highway from Tunisia to Morocco
- Social housing in Angola and Venezuela (20,000 apartment units)
Pierson Capital Group has over 2600 employees and three main operations in Beijing (China),[7] Luanda (Angola) and Mexico City (Mexico).
Private life
Pierre Falcone is married to former Miss Bolivia and artist Sonia Falcone. They have three children.
Honors
On June 17 2013, Pierre Falcone was conferred honorary doctor of philosophy degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for being a supporter of brain sciences.[8]
References
- ^ "Pierre Falcone". Corporate-Executives.com. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
- ^ 421 incidents by UNITA, Global Terrorism Database
- ^ (fr) L'honneur retrouvé de Pierre Falcone, Le Figaro, 30 avril 2011
- ^ Eric Sessel, Pierre Falcone: the man who was wrongly labeled as an arms’ dealer, Allvoices.com, 13 June 2012
- ^ Pierre Falcone on Angola's public television at his visit to President José Eduardo dos Santos, May 23, 2011
- ^ Site Pierson Capital
- ^ (fr) Angolagate : l'autre vie de Pierre Falcone, Le Point, October 2, 2008
- ^ Seventy-sixth Board of Governors meeting commences with Convocation, awarding of honorary degrees, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 2013
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