Lindsay Owen-Jones

Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones (born 17 March 1946), born in Wallasey, Cheshire to a Welsh family, is the former Chairman of L'Oréal, the world's leading company in cosmetics and beauty.

Career

Education

Studying literature at Worcester College, Oxford and management at INSEAD, he got his first job as a sales representative at L'Oréal in 1969, selling Dop shampoo in Normandy.

Leading L'Oréal

In 1988, he was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of L'Oréal, at age 42. Under his tenure, L'Oreál has widened its market massively; turning it from an almost entirely Europe-based organization and beginning to sell its huge product range as far away as China.He is also a member of the Board of Directors at Ferrari SPA

Awards

A board member of BNP Paribas and Sanofi-Aventis, and also a member of the supervisory board of Air Liquide, Owen-Jones is an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2002, he was named "Best European Manager" by the Spanish "Futuro" magazine, and the U.S. magazine "Business Week" singled him out as one of Europe's "Business Stars". Owen-Jones became the first foreign head of a French company to be awarded the prestigious "Manager of the Year 2002 Award" from French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

In 2004, Owen-Jones was named one of the "25 Most Influential People in Fashion" by "Time Magazine".

He is the only British head of a company listed on Paris’s CAC 40.

In April 2005, Lindsay Owen-Jones was recognised for his significant contribution to France when he was decorated by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs as Commander of the Légion d’Honneur.

In 2005, he was awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

External links

* [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_02/b3815621.htm Business Week article]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_26/b3635022.htm Profile]
* [http://www.lorealusa.com/press-room/full_article.aspx?idART=82&idHEADING=11 Manager of the Year press release]
* [http://www.loreal-finance.com/pdf/dwd_pdf.asp?id_page=37&lg=us&doctype=page Futuro article reprint]
* [http://www.loreal-finance.com/pdf/dwd_pdf.asp?id_page=107&lg=us&doctype=page Manager of the Year award]
* [http://www.lorealusa.com/news/full_article.aspx?idART=3883&idHEADING=1 KBE press release]