Commanders of the Ordre national du M\u00e9rite

Jean-Paul_Costa

Jean-Paul Costa (3 November 1941 – 27 April 2023) was a French jurist and was the President of the European Court of Human Rights from 19 January 2007 until his term at the Court ended on 3 November 2011. He was first appointed a judge of the Court on 1 November 1998, and in 2009 was elected to serve an additional three years as President.

Jean-Louis_Beffa

Jean-Louis Beffa (born 11 August 1941 in Nice, France) is a French businessman. He was Chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain from 1986 to 2007, Chairman until 2010 and is Honorary Chairman of the board of Saint-Gobain. He is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation and was on the boards of BNP Paribas, GDF Suez, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, Siemens AG, Le Monde S.A., Société Editrice du Monde S.A., and Le Monde Partenaires SAS.
In 2000, he and Nobel economist Robert Solow co-founded the Saint-Gobain Centre for Economic Studies, later becoming the Cournot Centre. They went on to create the Cournot Foundation in 2010 under the aegis of the public charity Fondation de France, currently serving as co-presidents.

Catherine_Bréchignac

Catherine Bréchignac (French pronunciation: [katʁin bʁeʃiɲak] ; born 12 June 1946) is a French physicist. She is a commander of the Légion d'honneur, "secrétaire perpétuel honoraire" of the Académie des sciences and former president of the CNRS ("National Centre for Scientific Research"). The Times says she has "a formidable reputation for determination, decisiveness and an aptitude for analysing and clarifying complex matters." As a president of the CNRS, she was responsible for 25,000 employees, 12,000 of whom are researchers, and a budget of 2.42 billion Euros.

Yves_Bot

Yves Bot (August 22, 1947 – June 9, 2019) was a French magistrate who served until his death as Advocate General at the European Court of Justice.

Henri_Bentégeat

Henri Bentégeat (born 27 May 1946 in Talence, France) is a French Army general who served first as the Chief of the French Defence Staff between 2002 and 2006 and then as the chairman of the European Union Military Committee between 2006 and 2009.

Gérard_Garouste

Gérard Garouste (born 10 March 1946) is a French contemporary artist having the primary field of work as visual and performative domain.Since 1979, he has lived and worked in Marcilly-sur-Eure in Normandy, where he founded an educational and social action group to help children with art called La Source.
He has been married to designer Élisabeth Garouste since 1969.

Catherine_Cesarsky

Catherine Jeanne Cesarsky (born Catherine Jeanne Gattegno on 24 February 1943) is an Argentine and French astronomer, known for her research activities in astrophysics and for her leadership in astronomy and atomic energy. She is the current chairperson of the Square Kilometre Array's governing body, SKAO Council. She was the first female president of the International Astronomical Union (2006-2009) and the first female director general of the European Southern Observatory (1999-2007).