After a brilliant career as an officer in the Army and the Paris Fire Brigade, Hubert Faure chose Tarn-et-Garonne to create his fire safety consulting company.
Hubert Faure’s career is admirable when examined closely, as he has taken on impressive challenges. Despite having no connection to the Army, he joined the Saint-Cyr military academy at the age of 22 and became an engineer. He then commanded a unit of the Paris Fire Brigade, obtained a second engineering degree from the École des Travaux Publics at the age of 39… Now, this former officer of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Paris Fire Brigade has closed a military chapter to embark on entrepreneurship, a new challenge. Last March, he chose to create his fire safety consulting company and now offers his services in project management assistance (AMO). “At 56 years old, it is my biggest leap into the unknown. For over 30 years, my career evolved with each assignment, with new job offers at the end of each mission. After leading the management of military heritage in Tarn-et-Garonne and Lot for the past four years, I didn’t want to leave this region and return to Île-de-France where I worked for 23 years,” acknowledges Hubert Faure. “Yes, it’s a choice of the heart, a choice of life. My plan A was to find a job as an employee in a local structure as an AMO. I quickly realized that job offers for my profile were scarce. And all the proposals I received brought me back to Paris. So, I activated plan B by starting my own business.”
Learning to sell oneself
It was quite a dizzying choice at the beginning. This engineer with an impressive CV can showcase his solid experience in fire safety and project management in construction. He can also easily highlight his expertise in infrastructure project management. However, conducting a market study, preparing the financing file, or understanding the different legal statuses required to create a company remained unclear. “At first, Denis Aguero, director of the Grand Montauban business incubator, convinced me that it was possible. But it was mainly the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tarn-et-Garonne that accompanied me throughout the process,” he explains. “In a highly digitalized and sometimes dehumanized world, I was reassured by the human and personalized contact offered by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. When I was the director of real estate assets for the Defense and managed a yearly budget of 5 million euros for the maintenance of military bases in Caylus, Montauban, or Castelsarrasin, I was well aware of the procedures for all purchasing, ordering, and validation processes… Now, I am discovering the other side of the coin with regards to accounting and public procurement.”
“At 56 years old, it is my biggest leap into the unknown”
He also discovered the need to promote himself by attending presentation meetings, developing his pitch, and having business cards and flyers for promotion. It is a liberal world where he must now establish himself among architects, social housing organizations, and the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs… Project management assistance is a difficult activity to define and has no legal definition. He offers his expertise to help the project owner follow the project carried out by a project manager, make numerous decisions that fall within his responsibility during its implementation, and accept the completed project. Starting with no signed contracts in March 2023, Hubert Faure is starting to land contracts, especially in Île-de-France, by using his network. He does not despair of quickly finding contracts in the south and perhaps even in Tarn-et-Garonne, the department he has chosen not to leave…
