Jean-Claude_Decaux

Jean-Claude Decaux

Jean-Claude Decaux

French businessman

Jean-Claude Decaux (15 September 1937 – 27 May 2016)[1] was a French entrepreneur who earned his fortune in advertising.[2][3] He was the founder and honorary chair of the advertising firm JCDecaux, which is now run by his sons, Jean-François Decaux and Jean-Charles Decaux.[2][3]

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Personal life

Jean-Claude Decaux was the son of a shoe salesman in Beauvais, France.[4]

He was married with three children and lived in Paris.[5]

He died on 27 May 2016 aged 78.[6][7][8]

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.[4] In 1963, legislation in France placed restrictions on billboard use which forced Decaux out of business.[9] He founded JCDecaux in 1964.[10] 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.[11]

In 1980, Decaux personally designed the Sanisette public toilet, a self-cleaning public toilet, as a replacement for the pissoirs of Paris.[4][12]

In January 2015, according to Forbes, he had a net worth of $6.2 billion.[5]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Jean-Claude Decaux, père de l'Abribus et roi de l'affichage publicitaire, est mort (in French)
  2. [2]
    Forbes profile
  3. [3]
    BusinessWeek[dead link]
  4. [4]
    Peter Hellman (3 May 1993). "The Toilet Wars". New York Magazine: 42.
  5. [5]
    "Jean-Claude Decaux". Forbes. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  6. [6]
    "Ad tycoon Jean-Claude Decaux, pioneer of self-cleaning public toilets, dies at 78". 27 May 2016.
  7. [7]
    "Outdoor-Advertising Pioneer Jean-Claude Decaux Dies at 78". Bloomberg.com. 27 May 2016.
  8. [8]
    Eléanor Douet (27 May 2016). "Jean-Claude Decaux, l'inventeur de l'Abribus, est décédé à l'âge de 78 ans". RTL (in French).
  9. [9]
    "History of JCDecaux S.A."
  10. [10]
    Tina Grant, ed. (February 2006). International Directory of Company Histories. Vol. 76. p. 213. ISBN 9781558625808.
  11. [11]
    Roger Parry (22 September 2011). The Ascent of Media: From Gilgamesh to Google via Gutenberg. ISBN 9781857889468.
  12. [12]
    Clara Greed (June 2007). Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets. p. 80. ISBN 9781136396182.


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