Alain Dumenil

Ranked among the wealthiest people in France, Alain Duménil is today one of those bosses with an amazing career path, capable of bouncing back, and reinventing himself, driven by an incredible instinct that has always guided his life. From banker to philanthropist, the portrait of a businessman like no other. A multifaceted Franco-Swiss businessman An adventurer in finance, now living in Switzerland, Alain Duménil, born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1949, has had several career paths. His exciting career in a variety of eclectic sectors attests to the personality of this businessman, a true jack of all trades who never stops taking up new challenges. Duménil knows that nothing is ever permanent. He is not afraid to innovate, and he is not afraid to be daring. His career has been marked by acquisitions and sales in a wide range of incredibly diverse business sectors. Even if not all of his businesses have always been successful, they show how Duménil is able to bounce back and reappear, but not always where you expect him to be.! The businessman who has no equal when it comes to buying up failing companies to resell them at a high price a few years later also knows how to be discreet, if not very secretive. Proof of this is that few people know this Swiss businessman with a track record marked by good intuitions, who today ranks among the wealthiest in France, with assets estimated at one billion euros. Promising beginnings in Finance At the end of his training at HEC, young Alain took over the management of the brokerage company from his father, who had just passed away. At the time, the financial markets were more like the "Far-West" and a few brilliant intuitions or genius ideas were enough to make money. This is what Duménil did by setting up a trading room, and playing on bonds. Quickly transformed into a merchant bank called DUMÉNIL-LEBLÉ, the establishment was listed on the stock exchange and saw its turnover rise dramatically. A visionary, Duménil later sold his shares to CÉRUS, a financial holding company subsidiary of Carlo de Benedetti's group, just before the October 1987 crash. With ACANTHE DEVELOPPEMENT immersion in high-end real estate In 1991, during the real estate crisis, Duménil decided to create ACANTHE DEVELOPPEMENT, of which he became Chairman and main shareholder. He, therefore, surfed on the ruins left by the bad deals made by certain developers, and at the lowest possible cost, built up a real financial empire. ACANTHE DEVELOPPEMENT is a real estate company specialized in buying mainly office buildings (they represent about 62% of the company's real estate stock), but also, commercial premises (25%), hotel residences and residential properties (13%). ACANTHE DEVELOPPEMENT owns a real estate portfolio located mainly in the Central Business District and the historic centre of Paris. This quality portfolio generates both high and regular profitability in a sector with strong demand. Since 2005, ACANTHE DEVELOPPEMENT had opted for the shift to high-end real estate by refocusing its activity on the rental of luxury offices in the heart of the capital, thus gradually abandoning the activity dedicated to housing. Discovering the world of Haute-Couture A new turn was taken the next decade with the acquisition of distressed luxury companies. Sometimes it's only a step from real estate to podiums! At the beginning of the 2000s, Alain Duménil entered the "intermediate" luxury sector. Fashion, which was not a priori his profession, and in his DNA proved to be a pleasure. Realizing his interest in offering women between the ages of 40 and 50 a median offer between Dior and Zara, he created the ALLIANCE DESIGNERS group in 2002. The goal of ALLIANCE DESIGNERS was to buy out small companies with a rich past that needed to be revisited, thereby giving them a future. Through ALLIANCE DESIGNERS, he took over the men's label Francesco Smalto in 2000, and then in 2006 the luxury shoe brand René Mancini, who created the famous Chanel Bicolore shoe, as well as other models seen on the feet of many Hollywood stars. We can also mention other jewels of Haute-Couture such as Jean-Louis Scherrer, Jacques Fath, Louis Féraud, Stéphane Kélian or the jeweller Poiray... who fell into the lap of ALLIANCE DESIGNERS. A successful take-off in aeronautics Insatiable, this businessman with an atypical profile is also interested in the industrial sector, since in the early 2000s he founded the AD INDUSTRIE group, a key player in the field of aeronautical subcontracting. This very high technology group specialized in mechanical, hydraulic and composite engineering is today a real reference in the aerospace sector, for the Defence, Energy, medical, and automotive industries. The Group employs more than 1,500 people spread over a dozen industrial sites in France, Morocco, and Tunisia. In February 2004, the Commercial Court of Montpellier appointed the Alain Duménil financial group as the buyer of the airline AIR LITTORAL, which was subject to a judicial settlement, and had a fleet of about ten aircrafts. Another facet of the businessman: A philanthropist with a passion for culture Successively leading several professional lives, whether successful or not, is not enough to overcome the devouring energy of this businessman who is active on all fronts. The man who cultivates solid political friendships on all sides, always appears where you don't expect him. A culture-lover, we find him again in the early 2000s with a new hat, that of a publisher and a novelist. At the head of a publishing house Duménil is an exceptional boss, no doubt about it! In 2003, he took over Editions de L'HERNE, an independent publishing house created in the early 1960s in Paris. This atypical company is located in rue Mazarine. It puts forward monographs, studies devoted to texts or figures unknown in literature, marginalized or on the contrary excessively celebrated. Duménil the writer-novelist Passionate about literature, the businessman decided to unveil his gift for writing by publishing his first novel in 2006 "La fête Royale" (Plon). "La Fête Royale" is a story, an essay that reads like a novel. Through a fictionalized historical biography, the author stages the mysterious and fascinating life of Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finance at the time of Mazarin. He paints a skilful portrait of this financial genius, known for always going too far. The Franco-Swiss businessman took a close interest in this man of both light and shadow, after acquiring a tapestry once commissioned by Fouquet at a sale in Vaux-le-Vicomte. The work plunges the reader in the heart of Baroque France where we find the Squirrel, Colbert and Louis XIV. The literary adventure continues in 2009 with the release of Duménil's second novel "Parfum d'Empire - La vie extraordinaire de François Coty" (Plon). This fictionalized biography recounts the life of François Coty (1874-1934), nicknamed the "Napoleon of Perfumery", from his greatness to his decadence. This perfumer, a millionaire businessman who was the richest man in France loved adventure, grandeur, and stone before he died ruined. Surfing on his literary successes, Duménil delivers in 2012 his third novel, "15 rue Bassano" (Fayard) which tells a love story during the Occupation in Paris in this very street where the headquarter of his group is located. Duménil, Founder of a Literary Prize In 2007, with a passion for literature, he created the "Prix Duménil" which rewards every year in June the work of a French author published between the beginning of January and the end of April. This distinction is accompanied with a sum of 60 000 € which makes it the best awarded literary prize in France. Some of the winners included Philippe Sollers for "L'Eclaircie" in 2007, Jérôme Garcin for "Son excellence Monsieur mon ami" in 2008 and "Un très grand amour" by Franz-Olivier Giesbert in 2010, among others. Unlike other businessmen who regularly appear in the newspapers, the introverted Duménil does not try to be in the headlines every week, and knows how to remain discreet when he dons the philanthropist's outfit.