Édouard Empain
Édouard Louis Joseph, 1st Baron Empain (20 September 1852 – 22 July 1929), was a wealthy Walloon Belgian engineer, entrepreneur, financier and industrialist, as well as an amateur Egyptologist. During World War I he became a known Major General. His major claims to fame are being the original winner of the contract to build the Paris Metro, and developing the town of Heliopolis in Cairo.
The Baron Empain
22 July 1929 (aged 76)
Industrialist, General and amateur Egyptologist
Building Paris Métro and town of Heliopolis
Early life[edit]
Empain was born at Belœil, Belgium, and was the son of schoolteacher[1] François Julien Empain and his wife Catherine (née Lolivier). He went into business with his brother, Baron François Empain and other family members, and amassed a great fortune.
Empain began his career a draughtsman at a metallurgical company, Société métallurgique, in 1878,[2] and became involved in railway construction when he noticed that transport infrastructure in the countryside was inadequate. After success in Belgium with the Liège-Jemeppe line,[2] his companies developed several railway lines in France, including the creation of the Paris Métro.
Because he felt that he depended too much on the banks for his industrial plans, in 1881 he founded his own bank, Banque Empain, which later became the Belgian Industrial Bank ("Banque Industrielle Belge").[2] The Empain group of companies expanded greatly throughout the 1890s, constructing electric urban tramlines in Europe as well as railways in Russia, China, the Belgian Congo, and in Cairo, Egypt. Desiring to also be independent of electricity producers, Empain also was involved in forming a number of electricity companies to power his projects.[2] In 1901, Empain became a close friend of the then-ruling King Leopold II, who was the sole owner of the Congo Free State. Empain created a railway network in the Congo, based out of Stanleyville. [3]
