Bernard Gasquet

About Bernard Gasquet

In forty years of intense professional life, Bernard Gasquet has navigated at the highest level through two worlds as different and demanding as the corporate world and elite sports.

His initial university education (Sciences Po Aix en Provence, Master’s in Economic Sciences and IAE) naturally led him to join a major French industrial group of the time (Roussel Uclaf), where he quickly held key positions (HR Assistant, Director of the Executive Board Office). Simultaneously, he maintained close ties with the University: Associate Professor at the IAE and the IUT, in Human Resources Management sciences.

BG ended this first professional life after nine years, deciding to radically change direction to join the world of high-level sports, particularly sports shooting. After notable beginnings in competition (multiple French champion and record holder, world vice-champion, European medalist, Olympic pre-selection), he was quickly called to high-level coaching responsibilities: as National Coach of an Olympic discipline, he coached the French teams for major competitions and accompanied them to three Olympic Games (Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona). He continued with the French Modern Pentathlon teams, preparing and accompanying them to the Atlanta and Sydney Games. His profile opened doors to international bodies (Advisor to international Federations, member of technical committees, international referee and jury).

He has to his credit, in total – as a competitor or national coach in these two disciplines – over 60 major competitions (world championships, European championships, and World Cups).

As a Sports Professor, holder of Coaching diplomas (State Certified 1 and 2), and the mental preparation module from the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (INSEP), he has trained generations of State-certified coaches, sports professors, and trainers, some of whom are now behind the successes of French athletes.

Over the years, he specialized in mental preparation for performance. He notably expanded his range with several French professional golfers and other elite athletes, both French and international. He was once a member of the French Society of Sport Psychology.

His eclecticism, exceptional adaptability, and an uncomplexed view of professional life allowed him, alongside his Olympic routine, to participate in extraordinary sports and human adventures: He joined the crew of the famous Pen Duick III of Eric Tabarly (selected as crew member for the Whitbread 1981), then participated in the 1983 double-handed transatlantic race as co-skipper of Cacharel. Finally, he spent two years in the exceptional sporting venture of the Hydroptère, alongside Alain Thébault, Michel Desjoyaux, Jean le Cam, from its conception to its first year of campaigning on the water.

His dual profile “Corporate Management and Elite Sport” allows him to successfully bridge the gap: he can be at the helm of the French Shooting Federation as General Director, work in the GIE Paris 2012 Candidate City as State services coordinator, alongside great athletes like Thierry Rey and Olivier Lenglet. He also coached Jean Vandevelde to bring him into the top 50 of the world’s best golfers (up to his famous British Open 1999 final), and more recently became Vice President of the Sciences Po Alumni Association.

In 2012, in a form of synthetic return to his roots, he led “ACTIVA Concepts,” the sports service company he created, allowing him to indulge his passion for research.

Before leaving public service, he gathered experts in neuroscience and sports to develop and implement a totally innovative neurophysiological process for the instant programming of all our movements. He discovered that this product also impacts the health sector through its applications to motor pathologies of cerebral origin, primarily hemiplegia following a stroke. This opened a new path to gentle therapies.

In 2014, he expanded his exploration into the field of neuroscience and new biotechnologies applied to movement: He brought ACTIVA concepts to Thierry BOIRON, President of the BOIRON Group, a world leader in homeopathy, and together they created ALLYANE S.A.S., offering a cutting-edge product to sports and health professionals. At the end of 2015, he left the entire management to Thierry BOIRON’s team and retained an advisory role.

Since then, he has dedicated himself to what has been the foundation of his career: Mental preparation for performance. He addresses exceptional athletes in their quest for global success, business leaders in managing their careers, students in their professional choices and management, and individuals with motor disabilities in their pursuit of physical and mental well-being. To fulfill this mission, he created and leads the company BGElité Coaching.

When he wants to calmly enjoy his beloved city of Aix en Provence, Bernard Gasquet reconnects with his student life and returns to high school students and Sciences Po students, as well as job-seeking executives and regional entrepreneurs, to modestly and cheerfully impart a piece of his own philosophy of professional career as an adventure, between Sport and Business. Halfway between iconoclasm and realism. Between emotion and reason. To identify with them active bridges and reasons to view the present and the future differently.

He often concludes his lectures with these words borrowed from Coleridge: “Happiness is a dog sleeping in the sun. We are not on earth to be happy, but to live extraordinary events.”