Claude Dauphin (10 June 1951 – 30 September 2015) was a French
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
businessman and executive chairman of
Trafigura Beheer BV, a company specialising in commodity trading (oil, metals, ores). In addition to being one of the company's founding partners, Dauphin had previously served as Trafigura's chairman and CEO. In March 2013 his net wealth was estimated at $1 billion by ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
''.
Dauphin died from cancer in a hospital in
Bogota at the age of 64 after a two-year struggle with lung cancer.
Early life
Claude Dauphin was born on 10 June 1951 in
Houlgate
Houlgate () is a small tourist resort in northwestern France along the English Channel with a beach and a casino. It is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region.
History
Pre-19th century
Houlgate developed as a hamlet in t ...
,
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
in northern France. He went to school at the Ecole St. Laurent in
Bayeux
Bayeux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in northwestern France.
Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts ...
, leaving at 16 to work for his father's scrap metal business in
Rocquancourt before moving to Paris to join the
London Metal Exchange
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is a futures and forwards exchange with the world's largest market in standarised forward contracts, futures contracts and options on base metals. The exchange also offers contracts on ferrous metals and precious ...
brokerage Brandeis Goldschmidt as a ferro-alloys trader.
Career
In 1977, he met Felix Posen, head of non-ferrous trading at the commodities trading firm Marc Rich + Co. Posen hired him to work at Marc Rich, where Dauphin's first post was in La Paz as country manager for
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
.
He moved to New York and subsequently Zug, Switzerland to take up positions as head of zinc and lead trading. In 1988, Dauphin joined the executive committee as head of the petroleum trading division in London.
In 1992, as a result of the controversy surrounding Marc Rich and his indictments in the United States,
Dauphin left the company following his father's death. He took over management of the family firm, which he renamed and grew to become international waste management company Ecore. He remained closely involved with the family business for the remainder of his life.
In early 1993, Dauphin formed a partnership with five senior
Marc Rich
Marc Rich (born Marcell David Reich; December 18, 1934 – June 26, 2013) was an international commodities trader, hedge fund manager, financier, businessman, and financial criminal. He founded the commodities company Glencore, and was later ind ...
employees who had left the company, which was bought out by senior managers and renamed
Glencore
Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company was c ...
.
In March of that year, he acquired an existing shell business based in the Netherlands,
Trafigura Beheer B.V., to form a rival commodities trading firm. In its first year of business Trafigura set up a profitable oil trading book and won oil contracts in Argentina.
The company also profited as a supplier of raw materials
to China, growing to become the third largest global oil trader.
In 2000 Trafigura acquired
Puma Energy
Puma Energy is a Swiss multinational mid- and downstream oil company, majority-owned by Singapore-based Swiss company Trafigura.
Its operations span around 40 countries across five continents and encompass the supply, storage, refining, di ...
, a Latin American mid- and downstream company which subsequently expanded and by 2014 operated from 45 countries and had revenues of $13.4 billion. By that time, Trafigura had brought in
Sonangol
Group Sonangol ( pt, Grupo Sonangol) is a parastatal that formerly oversaw petroleum and natural gas production in Angola. The group consisted of Sonangol E.P. ( pt, Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, E.P.) and its many subsidiaries. ...
as a 30% shareholder in Puma, and had also reduced its own stake to 49%.
[
Dauphin never took Trafigura public, believing private company status was the best model for a trading firm.]
Trafigura's revenue rose tenfold in the period from 2005 to 2014 to reach $127 billion.[
In his leadership position with the company, Dauphin was an important figure in Trafigura's response to the 2006 Ivory Coast toxic waste dump environmental disaster. After local contracting company Tommy dumped 500 tonnes of waste at landfill sites around the port of Abidjan, Dauphin led a Trafigura delegation to Ivory Coast to assist the authorities and provide medical support and equipment.][ He and four others were arrested and imprisoned in the city's Maca Prison for five months on charges of dumping ]toxic waste
Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm (e.g. by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin). Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemi ...
. Dauphin and fellow executive Jean-Pierre Valentini were attacked on multiple occasions by gangs of "up to 100" young prisoners at the jail. Trafigura denied responsibility and culpability for the dumping incident but, with the executives still in custody, agreed to pay $198 million in order to secure the release[The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 8 October 2015, Obituary aper only p.31] of its employees on February 12, 2007. Three days later, Dauphin and Valentini were released and the Ivorian government dropped its charges against them.
Diagnosed with cancer in 2014, Dauphin worked to a hectic schedule to the end of his life. During his illness, he named former risk manager Jeremy Weir
Jeremy Weir (born 1964) is an Australian businessman, the CEO of Trafigura since March 2014, when he succeeded Claude Dauphin.
Early life
Weir was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1964. He has a bachelor's degree in geology from the University o ...
as Trafigura's new chief executive officer and continued to travel. In the weeks prior to his death, Dauphin traveled to Nigeria to secure an oil swaps contract with the government of Muhammadu Buhari and to Angola to maintain Trafigura's status as the country's refined products supplier.
Personal life
Dauphin married his wife Catherine in July 1976 in Caen, France. The couple had three children: Aurélie, Guillaume, and Charlotte.
Dauphin died in hospital in Bogota, Colombia, on 30 September 2015, during a business trip. In addition to his wife and three children, he was also survived by his five young grandchildren Maya, Alexander, Farah, Sebastian and Victoria and other members of his family.
Dauphin was known to be a tough, disciplined boss, who continued to recycle metals after his father's death. A private man, Dauphin was also known to communicate with lenders and bondholders in the company's annual report, but not to speak publicly. The only public speech he gave throughout his life was after receiving the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
from French President Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...
in 2001.
Dauphin was active in the philanthropic work of the Trafigura Foundation.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dauphin, Claude (businessman)
French billionaires
1951 births
2015 deaths
Deaths from cancer in Colombia
20th-century French businesspeople
21st-century French businesspeople
Prisoners and detainees of Ivory Coast
French people imprisoned abroad