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Paris (AFP) – Her appearances are rare and her speech even more so: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress to L’Oréal and the richest woman in France, is taking a step back from the cosmetics giant and passing the torch to her sons.
“I am not leaving L’Oréal, but its board of directors,” she said in a statement to AFP on Monday.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers will relinquish her seat on the board of directors at the shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday. She will be replaced by a representative of the family holding company, Téthys.
And she will leave her position as vice-president of L’Oréal to her son Jean-Victor, 38, who is already on the board of directors alongside her second son Nicolas, 36 and Jorge, 38 who manages Neubauer Artists.
The executive, who will still preside over Téthys, the main shareholder of L’Oréal, refers in her statement to AFP to a “generational transition, the fourth on the family side” with her sons.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, 71, is the only daughter of Liliane and André Bettencourt and only granddaughter of Eugène Schueller, founder of the L’Oréal group, whose origins date back to the beginning of the 20th century.
She became a director of L’Oréal in 1997. Since then, the cosmetics group has only grown to now have a turnover of more than 43 billion euros.
And Françoise Bettencourt Meyers became the richest woman in France with a fortune estimated at 75.4 billion euros according to Forbes.
Extremely discreet, she was placed against her will in the spotlight during the “Bettencourt affair” which resulted in the conviction of photographer François-Marie Banier on appeal in 2016 to four years in prison with a suspended sentence for abuse of weakness against his mother, Liliane Bettencourt.
The Bettencourt Meyers, “are so discreet that they are not well known and therefore caricatured”, explains Jean-Claude Le Grand, director of human relations at L’Oréal.
However, the family has “an active role as a shareholder and puts a meritocracy of managers at the head of the group,” he assures.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers “has a visceral attachment to the company which means she is very involved,” assures CEO Nicolas Hieronimus.
“A couple”
Hidden behind large black-rimmed glasses, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers “is someone who has a sense of humor and often starts with a big laugh,” notes Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre but also president of the jury for the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for the Intelligence of the Hand, which rewards professionals in the arts and crafts.
And “what is striking is that you are faced with a couple,” she adds.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers married Jean-Pierre Meyers in 1984, grandson of Rabbi Robert Meyers, who was deported and died with his wife at Auschwitz.
Jean-Pierre Meyers was a member of the board of directors of L’Oréal from 1987 to 2020 and vice-president from 1994 to 2020. He is currently the managing director of Tétys, vice-president of the Bettencourt Schueller foundation and president of the foundation for hearing, created with his wife.
In 2024, the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation made over 85 million euros in donations in the fields of life sciences, crafts and solidarity.
“Perhaps my parents would have preferred that I marry a Catholic, because they themselves were Catholic, but my happiness was theirs,” Françoise Bettencourt Meyers told Le Monde in 2012, “it changed my perspective on others, on the Bible.” She is notably the author of a five-volume study entitled “A Look at the Bible.”
Tradition
“I sense they are concerned about the fractures in society,” says Eric Mestrallet, founder of Espérance banlieues, a network of independent schools supported by the Bettencourt Meyers.
As she takes a step back, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers emphasizes her commitment to the group and its future. “We are its guardians,” she says.
“We want to appreciate this remarkable continuity out of respect and pride for all those who have contributed around the world. Basically, so that almost nothing changes in this epic,” she said.
As a sign of the importance of traditions, for every birth at L’Oréal in France, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers sends the parents a small handwritten note and a Christofle silver cup.
“An example that may appear paternalistic, outdated” but “people are very attached to this symbol,” emphasizes Jean-Claude Le Grand.
© 2025 AFP