Pierre Bernard Papillaud (1 July 1935 – 13 June 2017) was a French billionaire businessman.

Early life

Pierre Papillaud was born in Vignonet, a small village in

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

. His grandmother owned two cows. During World War II, his father, who served as an officer in the French Army, was caught by the Nazis in Belgium.

Career

Papillaud owned 51% of the Alma Group, which sells mineral water under the brandnames of Cristaline, MontBlanc, Saint-Yorre, Rozana, Chateldon and Vichy Célestins. In 2008, he sold the other 49% to the Japan-based

Otsuka Pharmaceutical (), abbreviated OPC, is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Osaka and Naruto, Tokushima, Naruto, Japan. The company was established August 10, 1964. History OPC's parent company Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. joined the Tokyo Stock Excha ...

for US$1.2 billion. According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', he was worth an estimated US$1.31 billion as of 2016. He was the 67th richest person in France (2016)."Les 500 plus grandes fortunes de France en 2016 : Pierre Papillaud et sa famille"
''challenges.fr''. Retrieved May 12, 2017. In April 2016, Papillaud's name was mentioned in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

through a power-of-attorney for Krewitt, a company based in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

. In September 2016, the New York Time
reported
that Pierre Papillaud demanded that the town of

Weed, California Weed is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the city had a total population of 2,862, down from 2,967 in 2010. There are several unincorporated communities adjacent to, or just ...

give up its only water source so that Papillaud's bottle water company could have more water to sell as Cristaline.

Personal life

Papillaud lived in Paris, France, until his death on 13 June 2017.

References

1935 births 2017 deaths People from Gironde Businesspeople from Paris French billionaires People named in the Panama Papers {{France-business-bio-stub