Billionaire Bettencourt Meyers Leaves L’Oréal Board After 28 Years

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the heiress of the L’Oréal fortune, has decided to step down from the company’s board after 28 years. The announcement was made as the company shared its earnings for the last quarter.

She will be replaced by Alexandre Benais, the deputy CEO of Téthys Invest, the family’s investment company and the largest shareholder of L’Oréal. This change will happen after a vote at the company’s annual meeting in April.

Bettencourt Meyers has been on L’Oréal’s board since 1997 and became the vice-chairwoman in 2020. Her son, Jean-Victor Meyers, will take over her vice-chairman role.

He and his brother, Nicolas Meyers, are both on the board, signalling a shift to a new generation in the family’s involvement with the company.

Despite recent challenges like a 20% drop in L’Oréal’s share prices due to lower demand in China, the Bettencourt Meyers family remains wealthy, with a fortune linked to their 35% ownership in L’Oréal valued at about $76 billion. In December 2023, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers was recognized as the first woman to reach a net worth of $100 billion.

L’Oréal was founded in 1909 by Bettencourt Meyers’ grandfather and has grown into a leading company in the beauty industry under the management of executives outside the family. Francoise inherited her wealth in 2017 after the death of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, who was the world’s richest woman at the time. Her inheritance included a legal battle where several people were convicted for exploiting her mother, who had dementia.

Besides business, Bettencourt Meyers is involved in philanthropy. She co-manages her family’s foundation, which supports science and the arts in France. She also helped fund the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral after the fire in 2019.