Robert Louis-Dreyfus aka RLD (14 June 1946 – 4 July 2009) was a Franco-Swiss business man who had major success as CEO of Adidas-Salomon and at Saatchi & Saatchi. He was a majority shareholder of Olympique de Marseille and during his tenure they re emerged as a major European football club.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Business career 3 Sporting interests 4 Death 5 Personal 6 References

[edit] Early life

RLD was born in Paris. He was a great grandson of Leopold Dreyfus, who began buying and selling wheat in the Alsace region a century earlier ^[1] RLD was not an exceptional scholar, but he excelled at poker, winning considerable amounts of money from his rich friends at the Lycee Janson-de-Sailly in Paris. In 1967 he spent time at a kibbutz and was involved in the six day war. He later secured a place at Harvard Business School with a presentation about his experiences during the war ^[2]. He spent the early years of his working life mentored by Siegmund Warbug, in the family business of the Louis-Dreyfus Group.

[edit] Business career

In 1982 he joined IMS, the US pharmaceutical research company enjoying spectacular monetary success. His original $400, 000 grew twentyfold by the time the company was sold in 1988. He served as Chief Executive Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, the UK-based advertising agency from 1989 to 1993^[3]. RLD invested his own money in Saatchi and Saatchi and during his tenure the agency grew considerably. He proved equally successful when in 1994 he took the top job at Adidas-Salomon, the German-based sporting goods maker adding to the brand by streamlining the product line and adding new companies to the group including the Salomon ski-wear and golf company. He remained CEO of Adidas until 2001 combining this position with chairmanship of Neuf Telecom with whom he served until 2004. He also served as a director of Neuf Cegetel.

Louis-Dreyfus finally re-joined the family company, Louis-Dreyfus Group by now a major commodities trading and merchandising firm, in May 2000.

[edit] Sporting interests

In 1996 he became the largest shareholder of Olympique Marseille, a famous club who had been rocked by a match fixing scandal and had been relegated to the French second division. Louis-Dreyfus with Adidas and the telecommunications company Neuf sponsored the team and Louis-Dreyfus invested heavily in rebuilding the Marseille squad marketing the team to the new immigrant populations in Marseille. The financial fortunes of the club as shirt sales rocketing though success, if judged purely on trophies won, eluded the club despite reaching the final of the UEFA Cup on two occasions and twice losing in the final of the French Cup. Olympique Marseille also missed out on the league title during Louis-Dreyfus'tenure though shortly before his death they finished second to Bordeaux and qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.

Louis-Dreyfus was also a shareholder in the Belgium football club Standard Liege and was also involved in the creation of InFront Sports & Media in 2002 (KirchSport until February 2003). The company were involved in the sponsorship of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cupand from 2003 were the marketing partner of the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation (FIBT) and the prime sponsors for the Bobsleigh World Cup in 2006 and the Skeleton World Cup in 2007^[4]

[edit] Death

He died in Zurich aged 63 on 4 July 2009, following a long battle with leukemia.^[5][6] The Olympique Marseille coach Didier Deschamps said of RLD ‘He was genuinely passionate about sport and football in particular. He loved sportsmen and considered them heroes. Despite his position in the business world, he was humble and accessible, which is rare enough to be underlined’ ^[7]

[edit] Personal

Robert-Louis Dreyfus was married with three sons and was a cousin of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Louis-Dreyfus, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	French/Swiss billionaire
DATE OF BIRTH	14 June 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris, France
DATE OF DEATH	4 July 2009
PLACE OF DEATH	Zurich, Switzerland