Pierre Bernard Papillaud (1 July 1935 – 13 June 2017) was a French billionaire businessman.

Early life

Pierre Papillaud was born in Vignonet, a small village in

Gironde Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,62 ...

. His grandmother owned two cows. During World War II, his father, who served as an officer in the French Army, was caught by the Nazis in Belgium.

Career

Papillaud owned 51% of the Alma Group, which sells mineral water under the brandnames of Cristaline, MontBlanc, Saint-Yorre, Rozana, Chateldon and Vichy Célestins. In 2008, he sold the other 49% to the Japan-based

Otsuka Pharmaceutical (), abbreviated OPC, is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Osaka and Naruto, Japan. The company was established August 10, 1964. History OPC's parent company Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. joined the Tokyo Stock Exchange through an ini ...

for US$1.2 billion. According to ''

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 ...

'', he was worth an estimated US$1.31 billion as of 2016. He was the 67th richest person in France (2016)."Les 500 plus grandes fortunes de France en 2016 : Pierre Papillaud et sa famille"
''challenges.fr''. Retrieved May 12, 2017. In April 2016, Papillaud's name was mentioned in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

through a power-of-attorney for Krewitt, a company based in the

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. In September 2016, the New York Time
reported
that Pierre Papillaud demanded that the town of

Weed, California Weed is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a total population of 2,862, down from 2,967 in 2010. There are several unincorporated communities adjacent to, or just outside, Weed proper, inclu ...

give up its only water source so that Papillaud's bottle water company could have more water to sell as Cristaline.

Personal life

Papillaud lived in Paris, France, until his death on 13 June 2017.

References

1935 births 2017 deaths People from Gironde Businesspeople from Paris French billionaires People named in the Panama Papers {{France-business-bio-stub