Air Liquide Japan Ltd., Japan Air Gases Co., is very pleased to announce that Mr. Alain Joly, Director of Air Liquiide Group, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, former Chairman and CEO of Air Liquide Group, has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver star. The awarding ceremony was held today at the Imperial Palace. He received the decoration from the Prime Minister followed by an audience with the Emperor of Japan.

Born in 1938 in France, Alain Joly started his career at Air Liquide as an engineer in 1962, became CEO in 1985, and Chairman & CEO in1995. In the period of time when he was in office in the top management of Air Liquide, the leading industrial and medical company underwent a significant transition of accelerated internationalization, as its customers became more diversified and more global. Over this period, Air Liquide became a true global company which is now operating in 75 countries worldwide with more than 80% of sales outside France (about 10% in Japan).

The late 1980’s to early 90’s was also an important period for the Group as it developed new important markets, in particular, in electronics. With his conviction that this new market would be flourishing particularly in Japan, Alain Joly came over to Japan frequently to reinforce Air Liquide’s presence that started in 1907. Transforming Air Liquide Japan in an Asian key platform for the Group, he met leading companies in the fields and supported a series of investment decisions including the expansion of the engineering activity, the establishment of Air Liquide Laboratories in Tsukuba for R&D activities for the market, and Denal Silane with Denki Kagaku Kogyo, to produce Silane, an indispensable material for semiconductor, TFT/LCD and Solar cells manufacturing.

Apart from his achievement as the CEO of the Group, he also contributed to the development of Franco-Japanese economic relations through his position as the Chairman on the French side of the Club Franco-Japonais from 1999 to 2004.

Alain Joly commented on being awarded the decoration, “I am deeply honored to receive this exceptional distinction from Japan, a great and dynamic country, with which I feel fortunate to have been collaborating for a long period of time. The honor of this decoration goes to the group which I represented for many years. It recognizes our joint efforts to contribute to the Japanese industry over 100 years. In this respect, my gratitude goes to all the people involved in our development: our dear customers in Japan and our hardworking employees in Japan. Without their support, I would not have been here today in Tokyo to receive such a great honor.”