Gérard Pélisson: his name doesn’t speak to you? His achievements perhaps more so: the Accor group or the Institut Paul Bocuse speak for themselves for this native of Lyon, a visionary of the hospitality and catering industry.
He was, with the chef Bocuse, the founder of the first hospitality school in France: Gérard Pélisson died on Monday the 6th of March 2023 at the age of 91. He was also one of the two founders of the hotel chain Accor. He had an unprecedented career in Horeca (hotels, restaurants and cafés), reinventing the codes of the sector.
The first Novotel in 1967
In 1967, at the age of 35, Gérard Pélisson opened the first Novotel in Lille, on a former beet field near the motorway… It was the first of many for the Accor group, which he founded with Paul Dubrule. A new hotel model in which nobody believed at the time. And yet…
France’s leading hospitality school
And in 1990, Gérard Pélisson co-founded with three-star chef Paul Bocuse the institute of the same name. The Institut Paul-Bocuse welcomes 1400 students of 72 nationalities, spread over 10 international campuses. For the 13th consecutive year, it is the leading hospitality school in France, according to the Eduniversal ranking.
His table permanently booked at the Pré Catelan
As a gourmet, “Gérard Pélisson had his own table, the number 5, reserved for life” at the three-star Parisian restaurant, Le Pré Catelan, says the chef Frédéric Anton.
His nephew, Gilles Pélisson, is also well known to the public: he has been successively at the head of Euro Disney, Bouygues Télécom, Accor and recently TF1.