Chairman & CEO Vivendi Universal
Born: Grenoble 1956
Education: Ecole Nationale d'Administration & Ecole Polytechnique

He was one of the youngest company chairmen in France when he took over as chief executive of the venerable 148-year-old Compagnie Générale des Eaux in 1996 at the age of 39. Prior to his appointment at Vivendi, Mr. Messier was General Partner of the investment bank Lazard Frères et Cie.

Within three years he transformed the bulky and insular conglomerate into a successful international business. He sold out of sewage and power and bought into music and movies, trading in the company's history in infrastructure for an unpredictable future on the internet. The Générale des Eaux name was dispensed with, traded in for Vivendi in 1998. With the acquisition of Seagram, the Canadian group which owned the Universal entertainment businesses, Messier emerged as the chairman of the world's second largest media group.

At the beginning of this year, the French government asked for a ruling on whether Vivendi Universal's rising number of US shareholders could put it in breach of national media legislation. This followed a month-long row started when Messier called into question the French cultural exception at a press conference in New York, offending the heavily protected French creative industry.

His image of the company is grand: to be "the world's preferred creator and provider of personalised information, entertainment and services to consumers anywhere, at any time and across all distribution platforms and services."

2001 saw the company expand its publishing interests with the acquisition of mp3.com, leading internet music provider and Houghton Mufflin, the US publisher.

For more on the ruling on Vivendi ownership click here