LEG A CY
ICON
Liliane Bettencourt (1922-2017)
French family business heir, socialite, businesswoman and philanthropist ambassador
1909
EUGÈNE SCHUELLER, FATHER AND PARISIAN CHEMIST, FOUNDS L’ORÉAL
1922
LILIANE HENRIETTE CHARLOTTE SCHUELLER BORN 21 OCTOBER
1950
MARRIES ANDRÉ BETTENCOURT (1919-2007), FRENCH CABINET MINISTER
1953
THE COUPLE HAVE THEIR SOLE CHILD, FRANÇOISE BETTENCOURT MEYERS
1957
EUGÈNE SCHUELLER DIES AND HIS DAUGHTER INHERITS FORTUNE
1963
LILIANE BETTENCOURT RETAINS CONTROLLING STAKE WHEN L’ORÉAL FLOATS
1974
TRADES HALF HER HOLDING, ABOUT 30%, FOR A 3% STAKE IN NESTLÉ
1987
FOUNDS THE BETTENCOURT SCHUELLER FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF LIFE SCIENCES, SOCIAL PROGRESS AND THE ARTS
2012
ENDS TENURE AS DIRECTOR ON L’ORÉAL’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GRANDSON JEAN-VICTOR MEYERS APPOINTED
2017 DIES ON 21 SEPTEMBER 84
CAMPDENFB.COM
THE MAKE-UP MONARCH
L
iliane Bettencourt, daughter of chemist Eugène Schueller, founder of the L’Oréal Group, and the world’s richest woman, died
peacefully in her Parisian home aged 94 last year. The French heiress was worth $39.5 billion at the time of her death and was the 14th richest person in the world, according to Forbes. She is survived by her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (64), who became the new richest woman in the world, and her two grandsons. Her elder grandson, fourth generation Jean-Victor Meyers (30), was a peacemaker during the decade when mother and daughter feuded over the family fortune. Meyers took his grandmother’s place on the board as she stepped down in 2012 despite questions over his business experience. The four family members collectively owned a third of L’Oréal, worth $105.7 billion as of May 2017. Liliane was the only child of Schueller and wife Louise Berthe. Her mother died when she was five years old, which forged a close bond between father and daughter. The future principal shareholder of the French cosmetics empire started working for the family business aged 15 as an apprentice.
The young woman reputedly inspired the stylised portrait of a woman which still adorns cans of Elnett hairspray. However, the family’s reputation became chequered when her father supported the far right in the 1930s. In 1994, her elderly husband André Bettencourt, a former resistance fighter turned French politician, was revealed to have been a member of a violent fascist group as a youth during the war. A contrite Bettencourt stood down as deputy chairman of L’Oréal. The ageing matriarch was herself unwillingly publicly exposed in 2007, when her daughter filed charges against a playboy accused of exploiting Bettencourt’s dementia for financial gain. The case was finally settled in favour of the family in 2015, with Bettencourt’s grandson named as her guardian. Bettencourt’s public image took another hit when French authorities investigated claims her money had illegally funded former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election bid. Sarkozy denied the claims and charges were dropped against him in 2013. Bettencourt Meyers said her mother “left peacefully” on the night of 21 September, 2017. “My husband Jean-Pierre Meyers and our children Jean-Victor and Nicolas share an infinite sadness,” she said. “My parents have not only been able to help the development of L’Oréal. They have also founded a charitable foundation that I am glad to chair today.” Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive of L’Oréal Group, spoke of his “great sadness” at Bettencourt’s passing. “All of L’Oréal’s employees join me in expressing our most sincere condolences and affectionate thoughts in these sad moments to her surviving relatives,” Agon said. “We all had a great admiration for Liliane Bettencourt who always looked after L’Oréal, the company and its employees, and was very attached to its success and development.” Agon said she had personally contributed greatly to the group’s success for many years. “Mrs Liliane Bettencourt was a great lady of beauty who has left us and whom we will never forget.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: PRESS ASSOCIATION ISSUE 72 | 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
