A Blue Blood Leading Axa Into Battle

Henri de Castries might once have spent a long and distinguished career in the French bureaucracy, ending with an elevated title at a powerful ministry. As the scion of an old, noble family and a top graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration--the finishing school of France's governing elite--de Castries was groomed for the part. At 26, he was already a high Finance Ministry official; at 32, he was supervising France's balance of payments at the Treasury.

But all that changed in 1989, when de Castries met Claude Bebear. Chief executive of a midsize but growing insurance company named AXA, Bebear was on the lookout for smart young talent. After the CEO outlined his ambitious plans for AXA, it took de Castries only 24 hours to join AXA's corporate finance department. "I knew I'd never be bored," he remembers. "And with Claude, I haven't been bored one nanosecond."