The Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME) is changing its name to Les Entrepreneurs, on the occasion of the annual “major assembly” of this organization, which is being held on Thursday June 25 at the Parc des Princes, its president, Amir Reza-Tofighi, indicated the day before.
“This change of name embodies two ambitions”, he explained: “to put entrepreneurs back at the heart of the public debate and make them a much more impactful force of proposal, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to seek out all the entrepreneurs who are not currently members, so that we are collectively stronger”. The new name was unanimously accepted by the regional offices, said Amir Reza-Tofighi, with “four or five abstentions”.
The president of the organization, aged 41, warned his predecessors Jean-François Roubaud and François Asselin of this change. In 2017, François Asselin himself lightened the old name of the former General Confederation of SMEs (CGPME) created in 1944 to simplify it to CPME.
This announcement is made on the eve of “the great assembly of Entrepreneurs”, a new annual event organized at the Parc des Princes by the second largest employers’ organization behind Medef. Around 4,000 people are expected there, including several members of the government. The Nobel Prize winner in economics Philippe Aghion and the new governor of the Bank of France Emmanuel Moulin will speak there.
“The objective is not to compete with Medef (France’s business movement),” underlined Amir Reza-Tofighi, “but to have a stronger collective voice, and the voice of Entrepreneurs is complementary to that of all other employers’ organizations.”
