Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, born in 1953, is a French businesswoman, writer and philanthropist. This is the sole heiress and controlling owner of the cosmetics giant L’Oreal (L’Oreal). Her fortune, as of July 2022 (according to Forbes magazine), stands at 71.8 billion dollars and positions her as the richest woman in the world.
Business biography
Bettencourt Meyers was born in Benigny-sur-Seine in France and is the third generation of the L’Oréal cosmetics empire: the granddaughter of Eugeo Schuler, the founder of the company, and the only daughter of Liliane Bettencourt, who led the company for many years. She received a strict Catholic education and over the years made sure to stay out of the limelight.
Betancourt Myers has served on the board of the company since 1997. In 2017, with the death of her mother Lillian at the age of 94, she took her place as chairman of the family holding company Tethys SAS which owns about 33% of L’Oreal shares. By the way, there was a sensational trial in France surrounding Bettencourt Meyers’ inheritance, which received wide media coverage, and revealed a complex relationship between the mother and daughter.
Erasing the past
Bettencourt Meyers is married to Jean-Pierre Meyers, the grandson of a rabbi who was murdered in the Auschwitz extermination camp, and she is the mother of two sons, Jean-Victor and Nicolas. The family background and dark past of her grandfather and father Andre, who were considered anti-Semitic and Nazi supporters, pushed her to work to improve relations between Christians and Jews. Bettencourt Meyers also published books dealing with Bible interpretation, as well as Greek gods and mythology.
Betancourt Meyers also serves as the president of the family philanthropy fund, which contributes among other things to social projects, organizations and ventures in the fields of science and the arts. Thus, L’Oréal and the family foundation gave an amount of approximately 225 million dollars for the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral from the fire that occurred in April 2019. Among her great hobbies are reading and playing the piano.
Comments to the article(0):
Your response has been received and will be published subject to the system policy.
Thanks.
for a new comment
Your response was not sent due to a communication problem, please try again.
Return to comment