Speaker

Gilles Moretton

President, FFT

Born on 10 February 1958 in Lyon, Gilles Moretton was a professional tennis player from 1977 to 1984. He obtained the best ranking of his career in singles (65th) in November 1981 and in doubles (55th) in January 1984.

Member of the French Davis Cup team (played seven matches), he also reached the round of 16 at the French Open in 1979 (losing to Björn Borg) and the final of the Atlanta tournament in 1981 and won three doubles titles on the main circuit (Paris, Bordeaux and Aix-en-Provence).

After ending his career at the age of 26, he pursued an entrepreneurial career for thirty years, guided by his passion for sport, which remains with him to this day.

He founded his company GMO (Gilles Moretton Organisation), specialising in the organisation of sports events, with which he created the Lyon Tennis Grand Prix in 1987, which became a major event on the ATP circuit. He managed this tournament until 2009.

In 1995, GMO took over the organisation of the Lyon Marathon. Six years later, in 2001, Gilles Moretton was appointed Chairman of the Board of ASVEL Basket, which he managed for 13 years (until 2014). Under his presidency, the famous basketball club won two French championship titles, in 2002 and 2009.

In 2004, he created the company Gones & Sports, which includes Occade Sport (Lyon Tennis Grand Prix and the Lyon Marathon) and ASVEL.

In 2005, he was appointed managing director of the sports marketing agency Sportfive, a position he held until 2007. In April 2010, he joined a group of Lyon-based investors who bought the local television channel TLM (Télé Lyon Métropole). He became chairman from July 2013 to January 2015.

In January 2018, he decided to commit himself to the development of tennis, and was elected President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Tennis League, before being re-elected in November 2020.

In February 2021, he became the 15th President of the French Tennis Federation with his project "Ensemble Pour un Autre Tennis" (Together for another tennis), following a campaign of more than a year, carried out all over the French territory.