Knights of the Ordre national du M\u00e9rite

Renaud Denoix de Saint Marc (born 24 September 1938 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French lawyer.

Philippe Malaud (2 October 1925, in Paris – 14 October 2007, in Paris) was a French diplomat and politician. He graduated from the École nationale d'administration in 1956. From 1968 until 1978, he was a member of the Independent Republicans.
He was the minister of civil service between 1973 and 1974 and was Minister of Information for a short period of time. Between 1973 and 1981, he was a member of the Parliament. Then between 1984 and 1989, he was a Member of the European Parliament.

Jean-David Levitte (born 14 June 1946) is a French diplomat who was France's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2000 to 2002 and Ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2007. He was also a diplomatic advisor and sherpa to presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Levitte was born in Moissac, in the south of France. He is a graduate of Sciences Po and of the French National School of Oriental Languages, where he studied Chinese and Indonesian. He is married to Marie-Cécile Jonas and has two daughters.

Michel Camdessus (born 1 May 1933) is a French economist who served as the seventh managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1987 to 2000, the longest serving in that position. He previously served as the Governor of the Banque de France from 1984 to 1987. Before that, he briefly served as deputy governor of the Banque de France from August until November 1984 when elevated to the top position.
Among the most important events of his tenure at IMF was 1997 East Asian financial crisis. His role has been criticized for not paying attention to the unique circumstances of the East Asian countries and blindly imposing the measures that were followed in Mexico, leading to considerable turmoil and rioting in countries such as Indonesia.Born in Bayonne, France, Mr. Camdessus was educated at the University of Paris and earned postgraduate degrees in economics at Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in Paris and École nationale d'administration.
He is currently president of the social initiative Semaines sociales de France (French social weeks) and is a member of the Commission for Africa established by Tony Blair. He is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace.
Camdessus is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa. As a Panel Member, he facilitates coalition building to leverage and broker knowledge, in addition to convening decision-makers to influence policy and create lasting change in Africa.
Camdessus is also a member of the Fondation Chirac's board of directors, ever since the foundation was launched in 2008 by former French president Jacques Chirac to promote world peace. He also participates in the jury for the Conflict Prevention Prize awarded every year by this foundation, and in the scientific committee of its Water and Sanitation program.

Michel Dalberto (born 2 June 1955) is a French concert pianist.

Christophe Bassons (born 10 June 1974) is a French former professional road racing cyclist. His career ended when he spoke out about doping in the Tour de France.

Éric Yves Di Meco (born 7 September 1963) is a French former professional footballer who played as a left back.

Yannick Alléno (born 16 December 1968) is a French chef who operates the restaurants Pavillon Ledoyen and L'Abysse in Paris and Le 1947 in Courchevel. He has been at least awarded twelve Michelin stars in his career.

Lionel Poilâne (June 10, 1945 – October 31, 2002) was a French baker and entrepreneur whose commitment to crafting quality bread earned him worldwide renown. His father, Pierre Poilâne started a baking business in 1932, creating bread using stone-ground flour, natural fermentation and a wood-fired oven. Lionel took over the bakery in 1970, continuing the traditional methods.
Poilâne is widely known for a round, two-kilogram sourdough country bread referred to as a miche or pain Poilâne. This bread is often referred to as whole-wheat but in fact is not: the flour used is mostly so-called grey flour of 85% extraction (meaning that some but not all of the wheat bran is retained). According to Poilâne's own website, the dough also contains 30% spelt, an ancestor of wheat.
In addition to miches, the Poilâne bakery offers rye bread, raisin bread, nut bread, Punitions (shortbread cookies), and an assortment of pastries to its clients. Poilâne is perhaps one of the most famous names in the baking industry today.
Poilâne mastered his single product and trained his apprentices in the physical baking process, which he believed to be the most important aspect of his vision. He believed as much of the work as possible should be done by hand, by one person taking responsibility for their loaves from start to finish. Lionel Poilâne laid the basis of a concept he called "retro-innovation"; combining the best of traditional elements together with the best of modern developments. The only deviation from his father's original formula was machine kneading, saving hours of work for his bakers. He was knighted as a Knight of the National Order of Merit for services to the economy in 1993.
Pain Poilâne is produced in the Latin Quarter of Paris where it is sold at the original boulangerie on rue du Cherche-Midi. A second Paris bakery on boulevard de Grenelle is located in the 15th arrondissement. The worldwide demand for Poilâne bread is met in a facility located in Bièvres which was built in the 1980s. The Bièvres bakery produces around 15,000 loaves per day in 24 wood-burning ovens which are exact replicas of the ovens used at the Paris locations. These loaves are shipped worldwide. The firm opened a facility in London's Belgravia district in June 2000.
On October 31, 2002, Lionel Poilâne was killed when the helicopter he was piloting crashed into the bay of Cancale, off the coast of Brittany. The passengers, Poilâne's wife Irena and their dog, also died in the crash. Poilâne was survived by daughters Athena and Apollonia, who now runs the enterprise. Apollonia is a graduate of Harvard University.Lionel's brother Max Poilâne went his own way and opened his own bakery. There are three Max Poilâne bakery locations in Paris. Bread lovers debate which baker makes the better bread, although Lionel's bread is more famous outside of Paris.

Martin Pierre Marie Bouygues (French pronunciation: [maʁtɛ̃ pjɛʁ maʁi bwiɡ]; born 3 May 1952) is the chairman and chief executive officer of the French company Bouygues which employs around 130,000 people globally. It was founded by his father Francis Bouygues in 1952.
In 2015, he was ranked by Forbes as the world's 481st richest person, and is a billionaire.