La Tribune Occitanie Montpellier- Anthony Rey
Laurent Gauze, hotel business manager and president of the economic agency Pyrénées Méditerranée Invest, received the Franco-Spanish revelation prize awarded on February 19 by Le Courrier d’Espagne. The ceremony, held in Madrid, was attended by 200 personalities.
Laurent Gauze receives the prize awarded on February 19 by The Courier of Spain (Credits: Julia Robles)
For the fifth consecutive year, Le Courrier d’Espagne, the leading newspaper for French speakers living in the Pyrenees, has awarded its “El Premio Le Courrier a la Revelación hispano-francesa” prize to the bearer of an outstanding Franco-Spanish initiative in the field of entrepreneurship. “Unlike other trophies, the aim is not to reward a past success, but an approach with strong development potential,” emphasizes Philippe Chevassus, founder of the journal.
At the ceremony held on February 20 at the Financiero business club in Madrid, the award was presented to Laurent Gauze, who manages a group of 11 Accor franchised hotels, including eight in Spain, two in Portugal and one in France, located in Toulouse. He is also the founder of the Accor Franchisees Association of Southern Europe, which has 50 members (80 hotels, half of which are in France).
Since 2013, Laurent Gauze is also the president of Pyrénées Méditerranée Invest, the economic development agency of the Perpignan Méditerranée urban community. As such, it has launched several actions towards Spain, on tourism in particular, or on the digital economy through the French Tech Train, whose third edition was held on June 19 and 20, 2019.
“Among the ten projects examined by our jury, Laurent Gauze stood out because he allows a French brand to shine in Spain. He has succeeded in developing it by setting up hotels in the city center – a challenge that must be met. We also appreciated the way Laurent Gauze spreads his business on social networks, very participative, sharing his management style, his evolution as an entrepreneur, etc.,” continues Philippe Chevassus.
The prize was awarded by a jury made up of a majority of Spanish, French and other nationality decision-makers present in the Madrid business world. The ceremony was held in the presence of 200 participants, including personalities such as the ambassadors of Estonia and Monaco, the French Consul, and many business leaders from France, Spain, Colombia, the UK, Russia, Ukraine, etc.
“This prize rewards several steps to connect the ecosystems of Perpignan and Occitania with those of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, which I know well. It touches me all the more because our Spanish partners have found these initiatives useful, and because this trophy is the second in three years that rewards an actor from Occitania, after Simon Casas”, reacts Laurent Gauze.
The Courier d’Espagne, founded in 2004 by Philippe Chevassus and Sébastien Trivière, exists in web and paper versions. In 2017, the media outlet created WOMMS (Word of Mouths Marketing), a networking network that has hosted more than 150 events in 10 years.
