Commanders of the Ordre national du M\u00e9rite

François de Vial (October 4, 1904 – May 16, 1984) was a diplomat and a Minister Plenipotentiary of France.

Didier Raoult (French pronunciation: [didje ʁa.ul(t)]; born 13 March 1952) is a retired French physician and microbiologist specialising in infectious diseases. He taught about infectious diseases at the Faculty of Medicine of Aix-Marseille University (AMU), and in 1984, created the Rickettsia Unit of the university. From 2008 to 2022, Raoult was the director of the Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes. He gained significant worldwide attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for vocally promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the disease, despite the lack of evidence for its effectiveness and the subsequent opposition from NIH and WHO to its use for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.As of 2024, nine of Raoult's research publications have been retracted, and another 55 of his publications have received an expression of concern from their publishers, due to questions related to ethics approval for his studies.

Paul Rohmer (1 November 1876 – 2 March 1977) was an Alsacian physician considered the father of modern paediatrics in eastern France after World War I.

Patrick Strzoda (French: [patʁik stʁɔda], Polish: [ˈstʂɔda]; born 5 January 1952) is a French high-ranking civil servant, a former prefect, and current French President Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff at the Élysée Palace. As President of France, Macron also serves ex officio as one of the two co-princes of Andorra. Strzoda serves as his representative in this capacity.

Jean-Yves Le Gall (born 30 April 1959) is an engineering graduate from the École supérieure d'optique (1981) and holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Paris-Sud (1983). He began his career in 1981 as a researcher at the Astronomy Laboratory, French National Scientific Research Center, where he worked on the European scientific satellites project Hipparcos and ISO. In 1985 he joined the Department of Industry and was assigned to the Space Office where he was particularly in charge of relations with the space industry.The Minister for the Postal Service, Telecommunications and Space appointed Le Gall as advisor for space affairs in 1985. In this position, he participated in the definition of CNES and ESA programs. In 1993, he joined Novespace, a subsidiary of CNES, of which he was Managing Director. Le Gall was appointed as CNES Deputy Managing Director in 1996. In this function, he was the French Representative to the ESA. In 1998, he was appointed as Chairman and CEO of Starsem.In 2001, he joined Arianespace as COO. Since 2002 till April 2013 he worked as an Arianespace CEO, was succeeded by Stéphane Israël. Since 2013 Jean-Yves Le Gall is a president of CNES.

Martin Malvy (born 24 February 1936) is a French politician of the Socialist Party.In 1992, Malvy was the spokesmen of the French government. Between 1992 and 1993, he served as Minister of Budget. He later served as president of the Région Midi-Pyrénées between 1998 and 2015.
In the Socialist Party's 2011 primaries, Malvy endorsed Martine Aubry as the party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election.

Bernard Squarcini is a French intelligence official and security consultant. He was born on 12 December 1955 in Rabat, Morocco. He was the youngest Inspector General of Police.
Bernard Squarcini was head of the French Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur (English: General Directorate for Internal Security) from 2 July 2008 to 30 May 2012. He was in charge of counterterrorism intelligence in Corsica, Basque Country and against Islamic extremism. In 2012 he created his company Kyrnos Conseil where he acts as an independent consultant.

Pierre Brochand (born 4 July 1941, in Cannes) is a former director of the French Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE). He was previously a diplomat. He was a witness to Operation Frequent Wind and the Fall of Saigon in April 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War.Alumnus of the École nationale d'administration (ENA), he is also a graduate of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC).

Patricia Barbizet (born 17 April 1955) is a French businessperson who served as executive director of Groupe Artémis from 1992 to 2017. She was also the chief executive officer of Christie's from 2014 to 2016.

Jean-Baptiste Duroselle (17 November 1917, Paris – 12 September 1994, Arradon) was a French historian and professor. He had initially considered an army career or study of geography, but his poor skills in mathematics and drawing led him to turn to historical study. Pierre Renouvin's course fascinated him, and he became his assistant in 1945. He went on to teach at University of Saarbrücken from 1950 to 1957 and returned to the Sorbonne afterward. Between 1977 and 1979, he was visiting professor of the history of international relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Duroselle's writings include La Decadence (1980), L'Abime (1985), and others. Duroselle was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1975. He was noted for his study of international relations and won a 1982 Balzan Prize for Social Sciences for his work.Among his students was Élisabeth Du Réau, biographer of Édouard Daladier. He supervised her 1987, eight-volume thesis on Daladier, published in condensed form in 1993 as Édouard Daladier, 1884-1970.