Margarita Louis-Dreyfus (née Bogdanova; born 1 July 1962) is a Russian-born Swiss

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 busi ...

businesswoman, chairperson of the

Louis-Dreyfus Group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC), also called the Louis-Dreyfus Group, is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, deve ...

Early life

Born Margarita Olegovna Bogdanova (russian: Маргарита Олеговна Богданова) in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, she was raised by her grandfather, an electrical engineer, and studied law in Moscow and economics in Leningrad.

Career

When her husband, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, died of leukemia on July 4, 2009, she became heir to the

Louis-Dreyfus group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC), also called the Louis-Dreyfus Group, is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, deve ...

and at the same time a majority shareholder of

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club p ...

, a football club her husband had owned since 1996. Her husband had integrated her into the management of the group in 2007, when he learned of the existence of his illness. On 29 August 2016, Louis-Dreyfus and the

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

mayor,

Jean-Claude Gaudin Jean-Claude Gaudin (; born 8 October 1939) is a French politician for The Republicans. He served as the Mayor of Marseille from 1995 to 2020. He was a member of the National Assembly of France from Bouches-du-Rhône from 1978 to 1989 and has be ...

, stated during a press conference with

Frank McCourt Francis McCourt (August 19, 1930July 19, 2009) was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book ''Angela's Ashes'', a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood. Early life and education Frank ...

that McCourt had agreed in principle to purchase the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

football club,

, owned by Louis-Dreyfus. The purchase deal was completed for a reported price tag of 45 million euros on 17 October 2016.

Personal life

In 1988, on a Zurich to London flight, she met Robert Louis-Dreyfus. They married in 1992 and had three sons, including Kyril who is the chairman and majority shareholder of English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

football club,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. Margarita, who had been working for a circuit-board equipment seller, became a full-time wife and mother. She took over as chairman of the

Louis Dreyfus Group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC), also called the Louis-Dreyfus Group, is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, dev ...

in 2009, following her husband's death from leukemia. In 2016, she had a net worth of $9.5 billion. She is a Swiss citizen living in Zurich with her three sons (Éric born in 1992, and twins, Maurice and Kyril, born in 1997), 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 r ...

''. Her partner is

Philipp Hildebrand Philipp Michael Hildebrand (born 19 July 1963) is a Swiss banker who has been serving as a vice chairman of BlackRock since 2012.Jochelle Mendonca, Emma Thomasson and Sinead Cruise (June 13, 2012)Former Swiss central bank head to join BlackRock''R ...

, the former head of the Swiss central bank. She gave birth to twin girls on 21 March 2016. Margarita is the second cousin once removed (by marriage) of American actress

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus ( ; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and producer who worked on the comedy television series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1982–1985), ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), ''The New Adventures ...

References

Living people Swiss billionaires Female billionaires

Margarita A margarita is a cocktail consisting of Tequila, triple sec, and lime juice often served with salt on the rim of the glass. The drink is served shaken with ice (on the rocks), blended with ice (frozen margarita), or without ice (straight u ...

Moscow State University alumni Russian emigrants to France Businesspeople from Saint Petersburg Swiss chairpersons of corporations Women corporate directors 1962 births Olympique de Marseille Russian corporate directors 21st-century Swiss businesswomen {{Switzerland-business-bio-stub