Michel Leclercq (born 1938/39) is 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. He is the founder and 40% owner of

Decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

. With over 1647 stores in 57 countries and regions (Jan 2020), it is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world.

Early life

Leclercq was born in France. His cousin,

Gérard Mulliez Gérard Paul Louis Marie-Joseph Mulliez (born 13 May 1931) is a French entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Auchan chain of department stores. Early life Gérard Mulliez was born on 13 May 1931 in Roubaix, France. His father, Gérard Mulliez, ...

, is the founder of the

Auchan Auchan () is a French multinational retail group headquartered in Croix, France. It was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and is owned by the Mulliez family, who has 95% stake in the company. With 354,851 employees, of which 261,000 have 5% s ...

supermarket chain, and owns 40% of Decathlon.

Career

Leclercq founded

, a sporting goods retailer, in 1976. As of December 2017, ''

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 ...

'' estimated his net worth at US$5.1 billion.

Personal life

He is married with four children, and lives in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, France. His wife, Marie-Claude Leclercq, is a

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

, and represents the family on the council of the Decathlon Foundation, started in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leclercq, Michel 1939 births Living people French billionaires French company founders