Eugène Schueller

Eugène Paul Louis Schueller (20 March 1881 Paris – 23 August 1957) was the founder of L'Oréal, the world's leading company in cosmetics and beauty.

He was one of the founders of modern advertising.

Career with L'Oréal

As a young French chemist and 1904 graduate of the Institut de Chimie Appliquée de Paris (now Chimie ParisTech), Eugene Schueller developed in 1907 an innovative hair-color formula. He called his dye Oréale. With that, the history of L'Oréal began. He formulated and manufactured his own products, and sold them to Parisian hairdressers.

In 1909, he registered his company, the "Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux", the future L'Oréal. The guiding principles of the company that would become L'Oréal were put into place from the start: research and innovation in the interest of beauty.

Controversy

During the early twentieth century, Schueller provided financial support and held meetings for La Cagoule at L'Oréal headquarters. La Cagoule was a violent French fascist-leaning and anti-communist group whose leader formed a political party Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire (MSR, Social Revolutionary Movement) which in Occupied France supported the Vichy collaboration with the Nazis. L'Oréal hired several members of the group as executives after World War II, such as Jacques Corrèze, who served as CEO of the U.S. operation. This involvement was extensively researched by Michael Bar-Zohar in his book, Bitter Scent.

Family

Schueller's daughter, Liliane Bettencourt, is the widow of André Bettencourt with whom she had one daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, a member of L'Oréal's board of directors. Françoise Meyers is married to Jean-Pierre Meyers, whose parents died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. Liliane Bettencourt is currently the second wealthiest woman in the world, with holdings estimated at $23.5 billion.

Legacy

The head office of L'Oréal in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine is named Centre Eugène Schueller.

References

• Michael Bar-Zohar, Bitter Scent: The Case of L'Oréal, Nazis, and the Arab Boycott (London, Dutton Books: 1996) p. 264.

External links

{{{inline}}}

• Official website of L'Oréal
• Forbes article on L'Oréal
• Forbes article on Liliane Bettencourt
• Book Review of Bitter Scent