Pierre Dreyfus; Former Head of Renault

Pierre Dreyfus, 87, a former civil servant who built state-owned Renault into one of Europe’s leading auto makers. Dreyfus, who retired as Renault’s president in 1975, also served as minister of industry for a year in 1981 under President Francois Mitterrand, and was later an adviser to the president. Dreyfus trained as a lawyer and held a number of civil service positions before becoming head of a state-owned coal mine in eastern France in 1947. He moved to Renault in 1955. Over the next 20 years, he expanded its output of 175,000 cars a year to 1.3 million, turning it into France’s main industrial exporter. Dreyfus made Renault a model state company, improving working conditions and wages. He advocated working with unions whenever possible and earned Renault a reputation for enlightened labor practices. As industry minister at the age of 75, Dreyfus tried with little success to rescue some of the country’s smokestack industries before retiring after a year, citing his age as a reason. In Paris on Sunday.