Jean-Paul Elkann (28 December 1921 – 23 November 1996) was a French banker. He was president of Compagnie Financière Jean-Paul Elkann (CFJPE).

Biography

Early life and education

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, Jean-Paul Elkann was the son of

Montbéliard Montbéliard (; traditional ) is a town in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, about from the border with Switzerland. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department. History Montbéliard is ...

-born industrialist Armand Elkann (1882–1962) and his wife Berthe Bloch. He was raised in Lycée Janson de Sailly in

. He was admitted to study at Polytechnique in 1940 but left France with his family to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions.

Refugee in New York

Elkann continued his studies in the United States and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia Business School in 1943 while living at

The Pierre The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 61st Street (Manhattan), East 61st Street, at the intersection of that street with Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. Designed by Schultze and Weaver, Schultze & Weaver, th ...

hotel in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Along with his father, Elkann entered in the

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

industry. Soon after, he became the owner and president of the company Vanadium Steel Italiana from 1948 and Vanadium Alloys Steel Canada (since 1950) and Vice President of Vanadium Alloys Steel USA from 1953.

Return to Paris

In 1953, Elkann returned to France and went into the fragrance industry. In 1962, he became the president of

Parfums Caron Parfums Caron is a French perfume house founded in 1904 by Ernest Daltroff. Over the course of the years, many Caron Perfumes were created. As of 2019, the brand is owned by Luxembourg-based Cattleya. Foundation Caron was founded in 1904 by Er ...

. Thereafter, then he became the vice president of

Parfums Givenchy Parfums Givenchy () is a French brand of perfumes and cosmetics, known for fragrances L'Interdit, Amarige, Organza, Pi, and Givenchy III. As part of Givenchy, it has been a subsidiary of LVMH since 1988. Presentation The Givenchy perfume brand ...

(1980–1983), director of

Christian Dior SA Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...

Group and director of several major French companies. He was also the president of the Consistoire israélite de Paris from 1967 to 1982 and then chairman of the

Israelite Central Consistory of France The Israelite Central Consistory of France (french: link=no, Consistoire central israélite de France) is an institution set up by Napoleon I by the Imperial Decree of 17 March 1808 to administer Jewish worship and congregations in France. He also d ...

from 1982 to 1992 and interim president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF) in late 1982, replacing Alain de Rothschild who died of a heart attack in October 1982. Although being himself a non-practical Jew, he supported the Orthodox movement. As quoted the Chief Rabbi,

Michel Gugenheim Michel Gugenheim is the Chief Rabbi of Paris. He also assumed the position of interim Chief Rabbi of France in 2013 after the resignation of Gilles Bernheim, the previous Chief Rabbi of France and remained in that position until the election of Rab ...

, Elkann told the leader of

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...

in the United States,

Alexander Schindler Alexander Moshe Schindler (October 4, 1925 – November 15, 2000) was a rabbi and the leading figure of American Jewry and Reform Judaism during the 1970s and 1980s.Jacques SteinbergRabbi Alexander Schindler, Reform Leader and Major Jewish Voice, D ...

: "The only difference between you and me, Mr. rabbi, is that I violate the law, but I do not change it, and you want to change the law." He was also the vice president of the France-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the chairman of the Association de coopération économique France-Israël,

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

Technion governor, administrator of Yabné school and administrator of the

Alliance Israelite Universelle An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

and vice Chairman of the Social Action Committee Israelite de Paris (CASIP). In addition to his business career, Elkann served on the board of overseers of Columbia Business School.

Personal life and death

Elkann married in New York with Carla Ovazza (1922–2000), heir to a Jewish banking family of Turin and

Ettore Ovazza Ettore Ovazza (21 March 1892, in Turin – 11 October 1943, in Intra) was an Italian Jewish banker. Believing that his privileged position would be restored after the war, Ovazza stayed on after the Germans marched into Italy. Together with his ...

's niece, whom he met at Columbia University. They have a son, Alain Elkann, who was born in New York in 1950 and in 1975 married to the influential Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat,

Gianni Agnelli Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce a ...

's daughter, Margherita Agnelli, from whom they have three descendants:

John Elkann John Philip Jacob Elkann (born 1 April 1976) is an Italian industrialist. In 1997, he became the chosen heir of his grandfather Gianni Agnelli, following the death of Gianni's nephew Giovanni Alberto Agnelli and since 2004 has been leading the A ...

, Lapo Elkann, and

Ginevra Elkann Ginevra Elkann (born 24 September 1979) is a London-born Italian film producer and director. She is a member of the Agnelli family and granddaughter of Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli. Early life Elkann was born in London,

. Since

Edoardo Agnelli Edoardo Agnelli (9 June 1954 – 15 November 2000) was the eldest child and only son of Gianni Agnelli, the industrialist patriarch of Fiat and of Marella Agnelli (born Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto). He converted to Islam when he was l ...

's mysterious passing, Gianni Agnelli chose John Elkann as the heir for the family estate. After divorce, Elkann Jean remarried on 9 November 1953 with Francoise Schuhl, with whom he had a daughter: Brigitte Elkann. He died on 23 November 1996 in Paris.

Honours

* Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, 1988 * National Order of Merit (France), 1996

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elkann, Jean-Paul French bankers Clothing companies of France Commanders of the Legion of Honour Vanadium 20th-century French Jews 1921 births 1996 deaths Columbia Business School alumni