Gérard Pélisson, who was born on February 9 in Lyon, left with an engineering degree from the École centrale in his pocket and moved to the United States.
There, his wife’s odd jobs helped pay for his studies at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which he attended before being hired by IBM.
Although the hotel industry wasn’t yet established in France, he stumbled upon Paul Dubrule there, who shared his admiration for the American “success story” Holiday Inn, with its uniform rooms on the fringes of towns.
In a former beet field close to the northern freeway, they raised three million francs in three years and built the first Novotel in the area of Lille in 1967.
Gérard Pelisson Net Worth at Time of Death
His net worth at the time of his death is still under review. However, we believe, his net worth will be around 1.5 billion dollars.