Bernard Hanon, the chairman of the board of Renault, the nationally owned French automaker, was sleeping at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City two weeks ago when the ax fell. At 4 a.m. an aide called from Paris to read him a front- page article from the pro-Socialist daily Le Matin. The paper announced that Hanon, 53, would soon be replaced by Georges Besse, 57, chairman of the Pechiney state-owned aluminum conglomerate. Shocked and angry, Hanon caught the next Concorde back to Paris. Summoned to Premier Laurent Fabius' office early last week, Hanon was forced to resign. Two days later...
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