Fourtou: Vivendi's new CEO

PARIS, France -- The board of Vivendi Universal has appointed Jean-Rene Fourtou as the new chief executive of the world's second largest media company after Jean-Marie Messier was ousted.

Fourtou, 63, is seen as a "safe pair of hands" as the company prepares to win back investor support.

Investors have dumped Vivendi's stock, which has fallen more than 70 percent since the beginning of this year, after his predecessor's strategy of spending $100 billion on media assets saddled the Franco-American conglomerate with a mountain of debt.

Fourtou, a father of three sons and a keen golfer and tennis player, has been credited with turning around the fortunes of drug maker Rhone-Poulenc. He was widely expected to be Messier's replacement.

QUICKVOTE Can Fourtou restore Vivendi's fortunes? Yes No View Results

The company was privatised after a spending spree to buy up rivals, propelling it to the seventh-largest drug marker in the world from 17.

But his real challenge came with Rhone-Poulenc's merger with German rival Hoechst, creating the world's fifth-largest drugmaker Aventis. He won praise for heading off cultural and ego clashes through out the merger process.

That will hold him in good stead because up until now the board of Vivendi has been split along continental lines. European directors have been backing Messier, while the North Americans have been calling for him to go.

Fourtou has spent more than 16 years at the top of the French chemicals and drugs company, outliving a string of left and right wing governments, which his supporters say point to his strong political skills.

And those political skills will be needed as the company considers which assets to sell.

The French government does not want Vivendi to sell its water business, the biggest in the world, to international investors.

Fourtou graduated from France's elite Polytechnique school in 1960 and joined management consultants Bossard and Michel three years later. He became chief executive in 1972 and chairman in 1977, before taking on the top job at Rhone-Poulenc in 1996.

He held on to the post until Aventis was created in 1999, when he became vice chairman before stepping down from the position in May, 2002, to take up a non-executive position as vice chairman at the company.