François Asselin, President of CPME
François Asselin was born on 18th of November 1964 in Thouars. He is an entrepreneur in the construction sector. Since 1993 he has been running Asselin SAS, a family-owned SME with 140 employees in the French department of Deux-Sèvres with two subsidiaries in the French overseas department of La Réunion and in the United States. Asselin SAS restores historical monuments and old buildings using its expertise in joinery, carpentry, cabinet-making and decorative ironwork. Among its most prestigious projects, the company restored the 288 joineries on the west front of the Château de Versailles and built a replica of the warship, the Hermione.
As a committed entrepreneur, François Asselin has been defending entrepreneurship for many years. At the regional level, he chaired the French Building Federation of Deux-Sèvres from 2001 to 2006, then the CGPME of Deux-Sèvres from 2009 to 2011, before becoming president of the CGPME Poitou-Charentes from 2011 to 2015. At the national level, he held the position of Vice-President of the French Building Federation from 2008 to 2014 and became a member of the Board of Directors of CGPME in 2011.
François Asselin is a Knight of the French National Order of Merit and Knight of the French Order of the Legion of Honour. He is a member of the French Economic , Social and Environmental Council, a member of the Board of Directors of Bpifrance Financement and a member of the Financement-Garantie committee, and member of the Board of Directors of Business France.
He has been President of CPME since the 1st of January 2015. He began his term with the launch of a brand new strategy for the Confederation of SMEs. As a reflection of this ambition, the Confederation adopted a new name: CPME, and a new logo on the 6th of January 2017.
Four main aims are guiding the CPME’s strategy for 2020:
- Encourage risk-taking,
- Promote a competitive business environment tailored to the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises,
- Driving innovation and responsible development,
- Launch a calm and non-binding social dialogue.
