(FORTUNE Magazine) – Nike may have athlete Bo Jackson as its pitchman (''Bo knows''), but German archrival Adidas has landed its own Beaux. She's Gilberte Beaux, 61, one of France's best-known bankers and longtime right hand to financier Sir James Goldsmith. With Jimmy more interested these days in pursuing environmental causes than in raiding, Beaux has joined another swashbuckler -- French entrepreneur Bernard Tapie, 47, who acquired family-owned Adidas in October. The two first met 12 years ago when Tapie, then a hard-charging unknown, came to Beaux's bank for a loan. She approved his request; her board did not. Now, as vice chairman of the Adidas holding company, Beaux hopes to help Tapie bolster his latest acquisition's earnings. Last year the company lost $77 million as family squabbles hampered decision-making while Nike and Reebok International were gaining ground in the crucial U.S. market. Says Beaux: ''Bernard Tapie will give Adidas punch.'' She pulls no punches herself. A self-made woman -- almost unheard of in France -- she joined banker Seligman & Co. as a secretary at age 17. Four years later she became the firm's top trader. In 1968 she linked up with Goldsmith, who made her chief executive of his holding company, Generale Occidentale. Its businesses included the Grand Union grocery chain and the magazine L'Express. Now a full-fledged member of the Paris establishment, Beaux served as treasurer for the 1988 presidential campaign of conservative Raymond Barre, a former Prime Minister.