THE PRESIDENT JEAN-MICHEL AULAS REVEALS HIMSELF IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Jean-Michel Aulas is a perfect product of the school of the Republic. A key figure in the business and sports world in France and internationally, he has acquired his status through an accelerated rise. Born in L'Arbresle (Rhône), son of a French teacher and a maths teacher, he anticipated the computer revolution with aplomb. With a simple BTS at the age of 19, this ever-burning spirit asked his parents for emancipation (the legal age of majority was then 21) in order to co-found his very first company. It was in the IT sector that he blossomed further, to the point of running CEGID (Compagnie Européenne de Gestion de l'Informatique Décentralisée), a company specialising in the design of account management software. He discovered football somewhat by chance. A former union delegate for the UNEF, marked by the events of May 68, and a former handball player, he was content, at first, to respond to a bravado from Bernard Tapie who was anxious to see him take over the management of Olympique Lyonnais. The gamble paid off. To such an extent that Jean-Michel Aulas is considered as one of the most efficient presidents in the history of French football. Along the way, JMA - as all those close to him call him - has won seven French league titles in a row and eight European league titles with OL. He is one of the few presidents in France to have built a dedicated stadium (the Groupama Stadium).

Jean-Michel Aulas is 73 years old. Originally from Arbresle (Rhône), he has always remained loyal to the Lyon region. Forty years ago, he founded CEGID, a company specialising in professional software, which was soon listed on the stock exchange and then sold to Groupama. Today he is chairman of the investment fund Holnest and, at the same time, chairman of Olympique Lyonnais, a club that was crowned French football champion seven times in the 2000s.