Édouard Étienne Alphonse de Rothschild (; born 27 December 1957) is a businessman and part of the French branch of the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Fr ...

Early life and education

Édouard de Rothschild was born in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a département in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west ...

. He is the son of Guy de Rothschild (1909–2007) and Marie-Hélène van Zuylen van Nyevelt (1927–1996). His father is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and his mother is of half

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

, one-quarter Dutch, and one-quarter Jewish descent. He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school in Paris. He studied law at Panthéon-Assas University in France and in 1985 graduated with an M.B.A. degree from the

Stern School of Business The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

.Website of Edouard de Rothschild: Biography
retrieved July 5, 2012

Career

Édouard de Rothschild started his career at the New York bank Wertheim. He then moved to Paris to work for Eurofin, Georges Plescoff's new bank. In 1982, he joined his half-brother

David René de Rothschild Baron David René James de Rothschild (; born December 15, 1942) is a French banker and a member of the French branch of the Rothschild family. Since 2018, he is supervisory board chairman of Rothschild & Co and chairman of Rothschild Continuat ...

and cousin

Éric de Rothschild Baron Éric Alain Robert David de Rothschild (born 3 October 1940) is a French banker. Early life Éric de Rothschild was born on 3 October 1940 in New York City.Antoine FouchetÉric de Rothschild plaide pour « l’enseignement de la Shoah » '' ...

to recapitalize and relaunch Rothschild & Cie Banque. In July 2003, he became the head of the bank. He stepped down in June 2004 saying he would remain involved as the non-executive chairman of the bank's supervisory board while taking on projects unrelated to finance. Until May 2005, he was a member of the Supervisory Board at Imerys S.A., a company the family had been a majority or significant shareholder in since 1880. In January 2005, Édouard de Rothschild invested €20 million for a 37% controlling stake in the French

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France' ...

''. The

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

daily was founded by philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lite ...

and

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

militant journalist

Serge July Serge July (born 27 December 1942) is a French journalist, founder of the daily ''Libération'', and a prominent figure in French politics from the 1970s through the 1990s. In recent times, he has been active in French organizations working in su ...

in 1973 but in recent years has sustained substantial losses. In 2010, he became president of the board of ''Libération'' and moved to Israel. His shares were heavily diluted when, in 2014,

Patrick Drahi Patrick Drahi ( he, פטריק דרהי; born 20 August 1963) is a French–Israeli billionaire, businessman telecoms, media tycoon, and investor, magnate. He has been living in Switzerland since 1999.. He is the founder and controlling shareho ...

became the new owner of the newspaper. He owns a share of the

Château Lafite A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

vineyard. He is a member of the think tank Le Siècle.

Personal life

Édouard has been married twice, first in 1982, to Mathilde Alexe Marie Christiane Coche de la Ferté (b. 1952), former wife of Sir Valentine Abdy. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1991, he married Arielle Marie Mallard (b. 1963), the vice-president of CARE France; she previously worked at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

and

Lazard Frères Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's lar ...

. Together, they have four children. An avid horse enthusiast, Édouard de Rothschild competes both nationally and internationally in

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

show jumping Show jumping is a part of a group of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes are commonly seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics. Sometimes ...

. In 1973, he was disqualified from the Junior French Cup, which shattered his dream to become a professional horse racer. He inherited the

Haras de Meautry Haras de Meautry in Touques, Calvados, Normandy, France, is a thoroughbred horse breeding farm. It was acquired in the 19th century by horse-racing enthusiast Alphonse James de Rothschild (1827–1905) who passed it down to his offspring so that ...

stud farm in Toques in

Basse-Normandie Lower Normandy (french: Basse-Normandie, ; nrf, Basse-Normaundie) is a former regions of France, administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Lower and Upper Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy (administrative region), Nor ...

where he breeds thoroughbred race horses. His involvement in racing led to his 2003 election as President of the French horse racing association France Galop, replacing the defunct Jean-Luc Lagardère (reelected in 2015). Being of partial Jewish descent, he accepted an invitation in 2010 from the Israeli Equestrian Federation to represent Israel in international competitions. He used his Israeli nationality to compete in the 2012 Olympics but his horse Lamm de Fétan was hurt before the competition.

References

Bibliography

External links