This week Family Business Office, for its twenty sixth edition of Focus On brings you French giant family business Auchan holding , until recently headed by Vianney Mulliez.

Vianney Mulliez, born on March 5 , 1963 in Roubaix, is a businessman and French billionaire chairman of the family business Auchan Holding Group from 2006 to 2017.

The Mulliez family is not only one of the wealthiest in Europe but is also one of the largest. The family‘s holding company, Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM), is co-owned by more than 1,000 family members, 600 of which are all millionaires.

The primary source of the family’s wealth can be traced back to 1961, when Gérard Mulliez opened his first Auchan shop in his hometown of Roubaix. Today, the company has grown into a multinational corporation which focuses primarily on retail.

The Mulliez entrepreneurial history dates back to when Gérard Mulliez’s father, Gérard Sr. opened a retail store. Gérard learned the ins and outs of the business, eventually making his way to the position of chairman before branching out on his own at the age of 29.

Gérard Mulliez and his wife have 13 children; however, none of the children succeeded him when he stepped down from his CEO position in 2006. It was his nephew Vianney Mulliez who stepped in to fill the void. Vianney previously served the company as Director of Business Development – Auchan Hypermarkets at Auchan Holding SA. Gerard Mulliez’s personal net worth is estimated to be $30 billion.

Son of Damien Mulliez, a first cousin of Gérard Mulliez , founder of Auchan holding, Vianney Mulliez graduated from HEC Paris in 1984 .

He worked for eight years at PricewaterhouseCoopers , before founding the audit firm MBV & Associés in 1992. He took over the financial management of Auchan France in 1998, before leading, four years later, the international development of the group as well as ‘ Immochan , the real estate branch of Auchan, from 2004. On May 10, 2006, the board of directors of the Mulliez Family Association (AFM) appointed Vianney Mulliez to the chairmanship of the supervisory board of the Auchan group (now Auchan Holding), replacing Gérard Mulliez who was retiring, preferring him to Arnaud Mulliez, son by Gérard Mulliez. With the reorganization of the group in May 2010, he became chairman of the board of directors of group .

On February 6, 2017, he stepped down as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Auchan Holding and of the Board of Directors of Auchan Retail , but remained Chairman of the Board of Ceetrus (formerly Immochan), the real estate branch of group.

 

The Ceetrus mission is to come to a common ambition and vision , to sustainably transform real estate and retail in the service of living well. Ceetrus acts locally in Europe, with and for the inhabitants, to create, develop and animate meaningful living spaces that generate value for the territories.

 

( All factual and statistical information presented in this blog has been obtained from an extract of articles found on tharawat-magazine.com and Wikipedia biographies.com ) Follow us on our Facebook page and Family Business Office website at www.familybusiness.org.mt

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