François-Xavier Ortoli President

François-Xavier Ortoli (16 February 1925 – 30 November 2007) was a French Gaullist politician and businessman. He served with the Free French Forces during World War II and was decorated with the Croix de guerre, Médaille militaire and Médaille de la Résistance. He served in various ministerial capacities in the 1968–1969 administration of Prime Minister of France Maurice Couve de Murville including Finance Minister. He was one of the two French European Commissioners from 1973 to 1985 holding various portfolios, serving as the fifth President of the European Commission between 1973 and 1977 leading the Ortoli Commission. He was later director of Marceau Investissements and President of Total. He was also the grandfather of Antoine-Xavier Troesch, a formerly eminent investment banker. Together with Etienne Davignon he attended the founding meeting of the European Round Table of Industrialists in Paris in 1983.