It was a happy coincidence that perhaps saved the life of the new Minister of the Economy in the Bayrou government, Eric Lombard. On September 11, 2001, the former general director of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, had a meeting in New York, in the towers of the World Trade Center when they were struck by two Boeings hijacked by terrorists. 'Al-Qaeda.
Then a senior manager at BNP-Paribas, Eric Lombard was to find partners there as part of the takeover of the investment bank Keefe Bruyette. Already present on September 10 on the 95th floor of the south tower, the various protagonists in the case met at the same place the next day at 8:30 a.m. to finalize the operations.
Fortunately for him, colleagues are dragging their feet
The various members of BNP-Paribas first meet at the bank in the center of Manhattan: “With the enthusiasm of youth, we had an appointment at 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. […] and I say to the team: 'Let's go straight away, the subject is settled'”, he explained in the podcast Secrets of leaders which was dedicated to him on May 10, 2023 on France Culture.
“Problem”, the president of the bank calls Eric Lombard to postpone the meeting to 9 a.m. in order to accompany his son to school. “I said [à mon équipe] “let’s go anyway, we’ll see the others, it’s nice,” he adds. Fortunately for the new minister, some of his colleagues are dragging their feet and prefer to wait for the scheduled time.
“A form of miracle”
Resigned, Éric Lombard therefore remained in the BNP-Paribas offices located just opposite the twin towers which were struck at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. before collapsing an hour later causing the death of nearly 3,000 people.
“A form of miracle” according to Eric Lombard: “I don’t know why, we should have left at 8:45 a.m. We were in the office at the meeting table drinking coffee and at that moment one of us said “one of the floors is on fire”. We didn't see the plane because we weren't looking at the tower. Then we saw the other plane crash. We understood what it was about,” he recalls.
The Keefe Bruyette bank will be “decimated” in the words of the Minister of the Economy. Nearly a third of its workforce, or 70 people, did not survive the attack.
Eric Lombard will stay at BNP-Paribas until 2013 before joining the insurer Generali France then Caisse des Dépôts in 2019 until being appointed to Bercy this Monday. It remains to be seen whether his luck will have continued until he managed to avoid the fall of the Bayrou government.
