Lindsay Owen-Jones

Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones (born 1946) is a British executive who was chairman and chief executive of the cosmetics company L'Oreal from 1988 to 2011. Born in Wallasey into a Welsh family, he studied modern languages at Worcester College, Oxford, and took an MBA at INSEAD. He started at L'Oreal in 1969 as a sales representative selling Dop shampoo in Normandy, and in 1988 became chairman and chief executive at the age of 42. During his tenure the company grew from a mostly European business into one selling its products around the world. He resigned as executive chairman in 2011 but remained honorary president. He has sat on the boards of Ferrari, BNP Paribas and Sanofi, was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005, and was the only British head of a company listed on the Paris CAC 40.