Édouard Emmanuel Gruner was a French civil engineer and industrialist. He trained as a mining engineer, and soon became a senior administrator or president of various steel and mining enterprises. He headed the central committee of coal mining companies from 1907, and was first president of the Protestant Federation of France. He was active in the social Protestant movement, believing that employers had responsibility for the welfare of workers, and should not just delegate this to the state.

The Comité Central des Houillères de France was an industrial lobby group that represented the interests of the owners of coal mines. It was active between 1887 and 1940, when the Vichy government dissolved it and placed the coal industry under government control.