Another death was mourned at Adidas this week after the passing of Henri Filho, who was the chairman of the company's supervisory board from April 1994 until November 2007. The Frenchman died on Christmas Day at the age of 79 years. Filho became involved with Adidas in the early '90s as chairman of Clinvest, the investment banking arm of the former Crédit Lyonnais bank. Among his trickiest customers was Bernard Tapie, who contracted a large debt to buy Adidas and was unable to repay it. Filho therefore helped to organize the controversial sale of Adidas to investors around another Frenchman, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, in February 1993. Filho became chairman of Adidas' supervisory board one year later, reinforcing complaints that Crédit Lyonnais had effectively taken control of Adidas. Registered as a management consultant, residing in an unassuming suburb of Paris, Filho remained chairman until 2007, when he stepped down for personal reasons.