François Lehideux
François Lehideux (30 January 1904 – 21 June 1998) was a French industrialist and member of the Vichy government. Car industry In 1929 Lehideux married the daughter of Fernand Renault, and soon became a leading figure in the Renault car company. He was assistant to Louis Renault and in this position convinced the head of the company to employ André Lefèbvre within the development department, Lehideux admiring Lefèbvre's bold ideas and feeling that Renault needed to modernise its designs in order to continue to lead the way in French automobile manufacture. During his time with Renault, Lehideux made no secret of his ambition. A year after the outbreak of war Louis Renault held a meeting, on 3 September 1940, with the country's new leader, of Philippe Pétain, at which Renault received the reassurance he sought that the government wished him to remain at the head of his company. Renault at this time was greatly concerned that his brother's son in law, François Lehideux, was scheming with political contacts to take the top job at Renault. The incident also reflects the extent to which the right wing government of Pétain shared the interventionist approach to industry that had been evident in