Jean-Claude Decaux (15 September 1937 – 27 May 2016)
was a French entrepreneur who earned his fortune in advertising.
He was the founder and honorary chair of the advertising firm
JCDecaux
Decaux Group (JCDecaux SA, ) is a multinational corporation based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, known for its bus-stop advertising systems, billboards, public bicycle rental systems, and street furniture. It is the largest outdoor ...
, which is now run by his sons,
Jean-François Decaux and
Jean-Charles Decaux.
Personal life
Jean-Claude Decaux was the son of a shoe salesman in Beauvais, France.
He was married with three children and lived in Paris.
His death was announced on 27 May 2016.
Career
At the age of 18, inspired by an argument with his father over the family shoe store's window display, Jean-Claude started a business creating billboards along French roadways.
In 1963, legislation in France placed restrictions on billboard use which forced Decaux out of business.
He founded JCDecaux in 1964.
He made a deal with the city of Lyon, proposing that he would build bus shelters and keep them clean in exchange for advertising space there. The company quickly expanded to other cities.
In 1980, Decaux personally designed the
Sanisette public toilet, a self-cleaning public toilet, as a replacement for the
pissoirs of Paris.
In January 2015, according to ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', he had a net worth of $6.2 billion.
See also
*
French Rich List
*
List of billionaires
''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...
*
Sanisette
Sanisette () is a registered trademark for a self-contained, self-cleaning, unisex, public toilet pioneered by the French company JCDecaux. These toilets (and other similar toilets) are a common sight in several major cities of the world, but th ...
References
1937 births
2016 deaths
French advertising executives
French billionaires
People from Beauvais
Businesspeople from Paris
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