Profile: Claude Henrion, ’68, France
July 2007
Claude Henrion began his Eisenhower Fellowships journey in March of 1968. The actual fellowship program lasted six months, an extensive period of time compared to today’s eight weeks. At 33, Henrion, of France, was the youngest in the 1968 MNP group of Fellows. In this era of “flower power” he and Mario Vivalda, another young Fellow, became known as the “Flower Children.”
President Lyndon Johnson was leading the country through a difficult period of time with the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., in March and Robert F. Kennedy in June, and riots across the country, even in smaller cities like Trenton and Camden. It was a tumultuous year both in the U.S. and Europe.
Henrion’s fellowship focused on corporate management with a special interest in management and computers with trends in hardware and software, R&D applications, and impact on management applications. In his 40-page typewritten evaluation report, he wrote the following: “I was able to carry out a deep study of the business community in the U.S. which was a complement to my knowledge of European companies, and to crisscross this huge country covering more than 20,000 miles by car through forty-three states and 30,000 miles by plane. During six months, I had 196 professional appointments, amassed 90 pounds of documentation and printed materials, and took 1,200 photos.”
Most of Henrion’s domestic travel was done with a ‘68 Chevrolet Malibu using the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. Among the cities he visited were Washington, DC, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Country music became his constant travel companion when his wife, Evelyn, returned to France after the first half of the program to take care of their three children.
Henrion met with several hundred Americans during his journey. Among them was Dr. George P. Schultz, who at the time was Dean at the University of Chicago. They had many interesting discussions over several days and several meals. Dr. Schultz later went on to become Secretary of State in the Reagan administration.
Henrion also remembers several events, some of them quite vividly, which took place while traveling across the country. In early March, during the opening seminar at Princeton University, he learned of MLK’s assassination through one of EF’s Program Officers who announced the news to the group. On another occasion, a large fire broke out in the Pentagon and destroyed parts of their computer network. Henrion, who happened to be in Washington, DC at the time, was requested to provide his expertise and guidance in salvaging the computers. He thinks that he may have been the only Frenchman to ever have worked inside the Pentagon!
In another incident, a serious flaw was detected in NASA’s computer system at the Space Center in Houston. Claude, who happened to be in the city at the time, was called in to assess and to assist with his expertise. And while staying in a small hotel in Los Angeles in early June, he could see the Ambassador Hotel from his hotel window – the very hotel where Bobby Kennedy was shot on June 5.
Henrion mentions in his report that “one of the most attractive aspects of the fellowship is that you are given time to think through a lot of issues that you normally never have to deal with. This, of course, helps you to find out who you are.” He mentions that the impact of the Eisenhower Fellowships has been profound for him – “it has been a lifelong commitment and has helped to shape my own personality.”
After the fellowship program in the U.S., Henrion returned to France and resumed a long and successful career, which included positions as board director in charge of major operating responsibilities with Massey-Ferguson UK (London, Coventry, Manchester, Kilmarnock), as well as president and chief operating officer, and eventually chairman and chief executive officer with LaFarge Materials, where he spent the last 15 years of his 43-year career. Henrion is now retired, but retains several positions, including president of the British Institute of Directors (French Chapter), president of the Institute of Strategic Redeployment, director and partner of X-PM Consultants, and honorary chairman of LaFarge Materials.
Henrion has participated in most of the international and many of the regional EF conferences, including one that celebrated the 75th birthday of President Suleyman Demirel, ’54, Turkey. He considers many Eisenhower Fellows and trustees as some of his closest friends, such as Alfonso Vegara, ’87, Spain; Sumio Takishi, ’95, Japan; and Abdel Aziz El-Aguizy, ’88, Egypt, as well as Jim Hovey, Dick Peterson, and Nezir Kirdar, ’57, Turkey and Iraq. He has chaired the French EF Nominating Committee, been a member of the International Advisory Committee for 12 years and will remain active in the network.
As a boy, he dreamt of becoming a musical conductor and concert pianist. His passion for music became quite apparent at the EF Conference in Sydney, Australia when he sang and played “Carmen” on the piano, and also at the Eisenhower Fellowships 50th Anniversary Conference in Philadelphia in 2003 when he sang and played (several times!) an unforgettable rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
As soon as his health permits, he will resume his passion for travel, whether it would be bicycling along the Nile River or hiking up Popocatepetl in Mexico, or on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He divides his time between Paris and the Cote d’Azur and loves to dote on his 15 grandchildren, all of whom make him very proud. He calls himself a “professional grandfather!”
He noted in his final report, “At the end of this report (and at the end of this fellowship) I want to tell you again how happy and proud I was to receive this exceptional ‘gift’… to be an Eisenhower Fellow really means what it means to me: an experience I will never forget.”