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Story highlights
Christophe de Margerie was Chairman and Chief Executive of Total
He died when his Dassault Falcon 50 jet hit a snow plow at an airport in Russia
De Margerie "was a shrewd oil and gas man, who loved to take Total into new frontiers"
He was warmly known as Mr. Moustache due to his trademark giant walrus-sized patch
One of the true benefits of my job as an international business correspondent is meeting larger than life government and business leaders that are at the top of their game. It would be difficult to find one that left a more lasting impression than Christophe de Margerie, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Total.
De Margerie died tragically when his Dassault Falcon 50 hit a snow plow at an airport in Russia. He was doing what he did best, pursuing a $27 billion deal when the country was out of favor with the West. De Margerie had just finished a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a dacha to discuss a Siberian gas deal with local partner, Novatek.
I met de Margerie shortly after he took over the reins as chief executive in 2007. As the former president of the Middle East division of Total, he kept a high profile in the region with two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves.
I had the pleasure of interviewing him several times, the last at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. While most CEOs avoided Vladimir Putin’s version of Davos altogether, those that were there stayed well away from public sessions and the limelight.
Not de Margerie. He sat on the front row during the main energy session to illustrate he was not intimidated by U.S. and EU sanctions. Before the session was over, I went up and asked if he was willing to talk. “Why not?” was his reply as his press representative peered at me with alarm. My one-on-one quickly became a mini press conference.
It was classic de Margerie, warmly known as Mr. Moustache due to the giant walrus-sized patch that was his trademark. Behind his larger than life appearance and presence was a shrewd oil and gas man, who loved to take Total into new frontiers, even if it meant courting controversy in Africa, Iraq and most notably Iran.
De Margerie was a scion of a champagne dynasty, the Tattinger family. Right after graduating from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce business school in 1974, he went to work for Total where he stayed for 30 impressionable years.
Read more: People we lost: Benjamin Bradlee and Lorin Maazel, by Christiane Amanpour
