In the Saadé family, there is no boundary between business and private life – Technologist

One weekend in September 2023, Rodolphe Saadé organized an unusual seminar for his two children and their three cousins. At 54, with his slightly over-stiff appearance and a metallic voice that makes him seem shy at first sight – a fatally incorrect assumption – it’s rare for anyone to say no to him. The five teenagers, aged between 14 and 19, found themselves on the top floor of the 147-meter-high tower named after their grandfather, Jacques Saadé, Rodolphe’s father. Here, overlooking Marseille and the Mediterranean Sea, are some of the offices of Compagnie Maritime d’Affrètement-Compagnie Générale Maritime (CMA CGM), the Saadé family’s shipping, logistics and media giant.

Just imagine the scene, worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. First, a close-up of the five youngsters, in all their youthful gaiety and with the ease of privileged children. Marseillais through and through, the boys dream of becoming footballers; as for the girls, they are just starting their higher education. Their names are famous, carrying in their wake an aura of success and money galore. But they haven’t yet fully grasped what this heritage entails. Here it is, right in front of their eyes, the treasure that will become theirs: a wide shot of the blue sea as far as the eye can see and, plunging steeply to the foot of the glass building, the quays of the La Joliette port, where dockers unload from huge ships the thousands of multicolored containers that feed world trade and generate the clan’s fortune.

Rodolphe wished to host this unusual family gathering to pass on the company’s history to his children and nephews. But even more so, while he is still young and at the height of his power, he wanted to let them know that, when the time comes, one of them will have to take his place. Just like his own father, who told him: “One day, you’ll succeed me, but until then, you’ll have to work hard…” It was a challenge to replace him, and perhaps even surpass him.

Continuing the work of our elders

Since the Covid-19 crisis and the tenfold increase in freight costs, the group’s earnings have skyrocketed, and the family has entered the top five French fortunes, according to Challenges magazine. A simple review of figures for the company – majority-owned in equal shares by Rodolphe, his elder sister Tanya and their last sibling, Jacques Junior – might make them lose their sense of scale. In 2023, CMA CGM posted sales of over $47 billion (€43 billion). The company became number three worldwide in shipping and number five in logistics, a branch in which the family only invested in 2019. With a presence in 180 countries, 160,000 employees and acquisitions in the media, the company whose reputation previously barely extended beyond the southern French city and the world of shipowners has become both one of France’s finest jewels and a global powerhouse. And just 30 years ago, Marseille’s bourgeoisie referred to this Syrian-Lebanese family, with racist condescension, as “the Manouches,” a subgroup of the Romani people.

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