Alain Taravella (born 24 May 1948) is a French entrepreneur, billionaire and the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the

Altarea SCA Altarea SCA (trading as Altarea) is a French company dedicated to the development and investment in real estate, especially shopping centers. Its headquarters are located in France, with subsidiaries in Spain and Italy. It was founded in 1994. H ...

real estate group.

Biography

Taravella graduated from

HEC Paris HEC Paris () is a business school and ''grande école'' located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional developm ...

in 1971. He claims to have financed his studies by carrying out real estate operations on the sale of apartments in Parly. In 1975, he joined the Brémond group, a real estate development company, where he became head of the leisure division. The group became Pierre & Vacances in 1978, a company specialized in leisure centers. Taravella became CEO in 1985. In 1994, he founded Altarea, a shopping center development company. He took advantage of the downturn in the real estate market in the early 1990s to acquire land in droves. In 1999, he worked on the Bercy Village development project, which Altarea marketed. The company was listed on the stock exchange in 2004 and in 2007 acquired Cogedim, a real estate developer of housing and offices. In 2010, after selling the Saint-Georges shopping center in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

to the German Commerz Real, he led the acquisition of Cap 3000, one of the oldest and most important regional shopping centers in France, in

Saint-Laurent-du-Var Saint-Laurent-du-Var (; Occitan: ''Sant Laurenç de Var'', Italian: ''San Lorenzo del Varo'') is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera. History The town was founded in the ...

. In 2011, he led the acquisition by Cogedim Altarea of the RueDuCommerce shopping site, which was finally sold to Carrefour in 2016.

Wealth

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 ...

, Taravella retains 45% ownership of

and has an estimated net worth of $2 billion, making him the 1580th richest person in the world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taravella, Alain French businesspeople Real estate and property developers French billionaires 1948 births French company founders HEC Paris alumni People from Falaise, Calvados Living people