A portrait of… Jean-Michel Lafond

After several years working in restaurants in France, Europe, the Middle East and the USA, and then as the manager of an incoming travel agency, Jean-Michel Lafond became the general manager of the Dijon tourist office in 1978. He spent 30 years in this role, the last 20 of which working also as the manager of the Burgundian Federation of Tourist Offices. Thanks to his background in law, Jean-Michel Lafond lead the legal and tax commission of the national federation of tourist offices and was involved in the preparation of the text concerning VAT in the tourism field in France in 1990 as well as the preparation of the 1992 law on tourism in France. He helped to design and implement the tourism course run by the University of Burgundy where he has been teaching Tourism Private Law for the past 15 years.

Part of the founding group of the “club des grandes villes” of Maison de la France dedicated to marketing in 1993, he was president of the club from 1994 to 2001.

In 1988, he took part in the meeting in Paris organised by the French Federation of tourist offices, where the European Federation of Tourist Offices was created. This organisation later became FECTO in 1991 and then merged with EFCT to create ECM in 2007. From board-member in 1997 through Vice-President, President (1999-2002), Treasurer in charge of the service centre in Dijon, in 2007 he became Administrative Secretary General then CEO. He resigned from his position at the last AGM in Gothenburg after 20 years of involvement with the association.

In 1999 Jean-Michel Lafond was appointed by the Prime Minister as Adviser to French Foreign Trade.

Besides wine tasting and promoting Dijon with Air France and Concorde in Japan and America, it is without a doubt the Fecto General Assembly in Vienna in 2002. This is because the equity capital presented at Ordinary General Assembly was positive for the first time for several years. For someone who had accepted to “run” for the Presidency, and the only one asked to do so, because of an equity capital of minus €27,081 which would have made us bankrupt if we had stopped, and having accepted full responsibility for it under French law in France, it was really something….

It was the end of my second mandate and I could see how lucky I was to have Tor Sannerud as Vice-President and Dieter Hardt-Stremayr as Treasurer. The three of us shared the same view and worked equally hard through the storm with never a shade of disagreement in our action: restore the finances and develop all of our projects at the same time.

I was also pleased that Claes Bjernke was elected as a successor as I was sure Claes would improve the development of the association with his energy and the power of his team.

To complete my satisfaction, we were in Vienna at the culmination of Karl Woeber’s project, the first ever International City tourism Conference, a conference attended by both university researchers and operational managers of city tourist offices. Only Karl who had shared our adventures for years and years could have organised this major event, with the back up of the Vienna Tourist Board and the great work of Wolfgang Kraus.

 Genoa. The Ordinary General Assembly  of 2000: seven and a half hours non stop! The association voting article by article… then electing the board… and the executive committee… Fortunately, this took place in Italy. Lunch was served by the sea at five thirty…with a smile!

 

…great relationships with colleagues throughout Europe… some of them have been very good friends for more than fifteen years… This could never have been possible without ECM. If I mention names, I am sure to forget some! I must say I was moved when I represented ECM at the retirement reception in Heidelberg of Nils Kroesen, a former president of the association. Of course I would also like to mention our last president Frank Magee who dedicated his second mandate to the success of the merge and accomplished exactly what he had prepared in his first with the collaboration of his board and the great ECM team in Dijon with whom I have been lucky enough to work and on whom I knew I could always rely even with crazy demands!  It brings me great satisfaction to see ECM on the right tracks today and I wish Dieter Hardt-Stremayr and the ECM board and team all the very best.

 

…being open minded, open to the multicultural world. Not only to different cultures of different countries, but as well to different cultures in your own country: managing action through a “PPP platform”* dealing with politicians and private businessmen who have different ways of reaching the same goal, different agendas, and other differences as well.

 

…improve my family life and my wine appreciation. Never forget that we are always right when we compare wine and people. Wine appreciation is like family life, sport or music: we only improve through practice…

 

*(Public Private Partnership)