Jean-Claude Decaux

Jean-Claude Decaux (15 September 1937 – 27 May 2016)<ref name="croix" /> was a French businessman and<ref name="forbes-billion" /><ref name="businessweek" /> founder of advertising company JCDecaux. The company is now run by his sons, Jean-François Decaux and Jean-Charles Decaux.<ref name="forbes-billion" /><ref name="businessweek" />

Personal life

Jean-Claude Decaux was the son of a shoe salesman in Beauvais, France.<ref name="newyork" />

He was married with three children and lived in Paris.<ref name="forbes-profile" />

He died on 27 May 2016 aged 78.<ref name="cnn" /><ref name="bloomberg" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>

Career

At the age of 18, inspired by an argument with his father over the family shoe store's window display, Jean-Claude started a business creating billboards along French roadways.<ref name="newyork" /> In 1963, legislation in France placed restrictions on billboard use which forced Decaux out of business.<ref name="history" /> He founded JCDecaux in 1964.<ref name="directory" /> He made a deal with the city of Lyon, proposing that he would build bus shelters and keep them clean in exchange for advertising space there. The company quickly expanded to other cities.<ref name="ascent" />

In 1980, Decaux personally designed the Sanisette public toilet, a self-cleaning public toilet, as a replacement for the pissoirs of Paris.<ref name="newyork" /><ref name="toilets" />

In January 2015, according to Forbes, he had a net worth of $6.2 billion.<ref name="forbes-profile" />

See also

• List of French billionaires by net worth
• The World's Billionaires
• Sanisette