Born into a family of entrepreneurs active in Europe and the United States, Michaël Fribourg has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Belgrano since 2015 and is himself the Company’s controlling shareholder.
Education and commitments
A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and Sciences Po Paris, he holds a Magistère in Modern Humanities and is a former student of the École Nationale d’Administration.
On leaving the École Normale Supérieure, Michaël Fribourg began his career at the age of 22 as a member of ministerial cabinets, first at the French Ministry of State Reform and then with the Minister for SMEs, Crafts and Trade. Appointed to the Inspection Générale des Finances on graduating from ENA, he carried out numerous audit and strategic and financial advisory assignments and became a specialist in the financing of the economy and industrial transformation. In 2011, he was appointed adviser to the French Minister for the Economy and Industry.
Founder of the Fribourg Philanthropies endowment fund, Michaël Fribourg actively supports the promotion of new talent on the international creative scene, for example with Central Saint Martins.
Michaël Fribourg is a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur, a Chevalier of the Ordre National du Mérite and a Chevalier of the Arts et Lettres.
From Chargeurs to Belgrano: 10 years of sector reinvention
In 2015, Michaël Fribourg became the reference shareholder of Chargeurs and succeeded Messrs Seydoux and Malone as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
He turned a group of industrial specialties present in 35 countries into a champion of industrial niches and extended the company’s presence to 100 countries, with a commercial or industrial footprint on all 5 continents.
A true Mittelstand of Mittelstands, Chargeurs builds world champions in sectors ranging from materials chemistry to technical textiles and the new creative industries.
In 2026, Chargeurs completed its sector repositioning and became Belgrano, named after its first historic ship.
Now controlled by the Fribourg Group together with family and institutional partners, Belgrano, whose strategic signature is “Architect of Rarity”, operates in 4 strategic businesses: culture and education, fashion and luxury, science, and bespoke investment.
An entrepreneurial and international culture
Bringing together, within its Governance and across the company, international talent with strong experience in building world champions, Michaël Fribourg sets Belgrano’s expansion within a long-term approach.
Thanks to a policy of targeted investments successfully pursued over the past 10 years, Belgrano today includes iconic brands such as Museum Studio, Skira, Swaine, Chaplin’s World, Chargeurs PCC, Senfa-Cilander, Nativa, Grand Palais Immersif and Harwanne Capital Management.
The portfolio of BtoB, BtoC and BtoBtoC brands built by Belgrano gives the Group an unrivalled ability to express the power of emotional intelligence across all its businesses.
The strong financial discipline accompanying this global expansion reinforces Belgrano’s business model with a very high degree of financial strength and independence.
