Marie Besnier Beauvalot (born July 30, 1980) is a French

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

heiress. She is a major shareholder of

Lactalis Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

Biography

Marie Madeleine Yvonne Besnier was born in 1980 to Michel Besnier and Christiane Hallais. Her father was CEO of Lactalis, from 1955 to 2000. Her paternal grandfather,

, founded the Besnier group (later Lactalis) in 1933. She has two brothers:

Emmanuel Besnier Emmanuel Besnier (born 18 September 1970) is a French heir and billionaire businessman. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and controlling shareholder of Lactalis. As of February 2025, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth at US$24.2 billion. ...

, Chairman and CEO of Lactalis, and

Jean-Michel Besnier Jean-Michel Besnier (born 1967/1968) is a French billionaire heir. He is a major shareholder of Lactalis. Early life Jean-Michel Besnier was born circa 1968. His father, Michel Besnier, was the CEO of Lactalis from 1955 to 2000. His paternal g ...

. She holds as many shares in the group as her two brothers. Marie Besnier inherited Lactalis with her brothers in 2000. In 2023, she was one of the 3 richest women in France, with an estimated fortune of 7.2 billion euros. She has no operational function within the company, but sits on the Supervisory board. She works as a

Designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

. She has been married to Stéphane Beauvalot since 2008 and lives in

Laval, Mayenne Laval () is a town in western France, about west-southwest of Paris, and the capital of the Mayenne departments of France, department. Its inhabitants are called ''Lavallois''. The commune of France, commune of Laval proper, without the metropo ...

. She is also involved in a number of philanthropic initiatives, notably via the Milk for Good endowment fund, which has supported the La Source association offering art workshops for the Aide Sociale à l'Enfance, and helped set up France's first integrated pediatric oncology center with the

Curie Institute (Paris) Centre of protontherapy Institut Curie is a medical, biological and biophysical research centre in France. It is a private non-profit foundation operating a research center on biophysics, cell biology and oncology and a hospital specialized in ...

Early life

Marie Besnier Beauvalot was born in 1980.Marie Besnier Beauvalot
''

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 ...

'' Her father, Michel Besnier, was the CEO of Lactalis from 1955 to 2000. Her paternal grandfather, André Besnier, founded the Besnier Group (later known as Lactalis) in 1933. She has two brothers:

, who is the CEO of Lactalis, and

Career

Besnier inherited 100% of Lactalis with her brothers in 2000. As of 2018, she is worth an estimated US$5.6 billion.

Personal life

Besnier is married. She resides in

, France.

References

1980 births Living people People from Laval, Mayenne French businesspeople French billionaires Female billionaires

Marie Marie may refer to the following. People Given name * Marie (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** List of people named Marie * Marie (Japanese given name) Surname * Jean Gabriel-Marie, French compo ...

{{France-business-bio-stub