Patrick Ricard: 12 May 1945 – 17 August 2012

For three decades, Patrick Ricard ran the modern incarnation of the family business his father founded in the depths of the Depression in 1932, steering its development from French domestic player into global wine and spirits operator.

I met Ricard on several occasions during his last eight years in charge of the company. While I wouldn’t claim to have anything but a passing acquaintance with the man, his affability and warmth were visible to all, offering a pleasingly unguarded contrast with so many “on message” modern day CEOs.

That he was so apparently open and free with his opinions was perhaps a result of him being MD or CEO of his father’s company for almost half of the first 76 years of its existence. No matter that, during those years, it had become the world’s second biggest wine and spirits group. To him, it was still the family business.

But ambition burned fiercely behind those twinkling eyes and that warm smile. On his watch, Pernod Ricard went from a company that was almost entirely reliant on the French market to one that was leading the way in the eastern El Dorado of the spirits industry, China.

Out of his father’s quintessentially Gallic legacy – after all, what, in the world of spirits, is more French than pastis? – Ricard crafted a business that combined a leading position in luxury Scotch whisky with thoroughly cosmopolitan brands such as Absolut vodka.

Like any good entrepreneur, he wasn’t afraid to change his mind. Having once proclaimed that he wasn’t interested in Champagne, he decided to keep Mumm and Perrier-Jouët when Pernod Ricard took over Allied Domecq in 2005. Asked why, Ricard said the company’s sales teams had been asking for a Champagne brand. “If you don’t have one, you’re leaving the field open to competitors,” he added.

In terms of business philosophy, Ricard was a passionate believer in decentralisation – in contrast with Pernod Ricard’s larger rival, Diageo. His thinking was that, even as the company grew into a multi-billion euro concern, it could still react swiftly to integrate new acquisitions and exploit local consumer trends. Its success with Martell and Chivas Regal, to name two examples, suggests he was right.

In 2008, Ricard stepped down as CEO in favour of Pierre Pringuet while remaining an active chairman of the board. He persisted in his belief that, thanks to that decentralist business model, Pernod Ricard could one day become the world’s number one wine and spirits group.

With his passing, attention will inevitably focus on the next generation of the family, and particularly Alex Ricard, his nephew and recently promoted from running Irish Distillers to the post of global MD of distribution.

Time will tell as to whether Pringuet and the younger Ricard can accomplish Patrick Ricard’s ambition of making a former pastis maker from the south of France into the world’s largest wine and spirits conglomerate.

But you can be sure that, if and when it does happen, more than one glass will be raised in his memory.