Background

Alain Wertheimer was born on September 28, 1949, in Paris, France, to a Jewish family of Jacques Wertheimer and Eliane Fischer. His younger brother Gerard was born three years later.

Alain Wertheimer’s great grandfather, Ernest Wertheimer, was born in 1852 and died in 1927. He was a Jewish by religion, and traced his roots back in medieval Germany. After being Gallicized, he became French, and owned a house in Avenue de Neuilly near Bois de Boulogne. He had emigrated to Paris from Alsace in 1870. During the 1870s, he had bought into the Bourjois, the theatrical makeup company that was responsible for introducing dry rouge to ladies in the 1890s.

Alain Wertheimer's grandfather, Pierre Wertheimer, was himself a successful French businessman. By the 1920s, his father’s company Bourjois had become one of the biggest cosmetics and fragrances company in the country. It had become an international business with holdings in the US as well. Their New York based facility had started manufacturing and distributing Helena Rubinstein range of face creams. In 1917, Pierre took over the company’s directorship and started operating it his own way. In 1924, he signed an agreement with Gabrielle "Coco" Bonheur Chanel to create Parfums Chanel, thus Pierre Wertheimer co-founded the House of Chanel and was an early business partner of Coco Chanel.

In 1910, Pierre Wertheimer had married Germaine Revel, who herself was the daughter of a successful stockbroker and a Lazard family member of the investment bankers.

Alain’s father, Jacques Wertheimer, inherited and operated his father Pierre’s business successfully. Born in 1911 and died in 1996, Jacques Wertheimer concentrated on the thoroughbred operations of horse racing, developing himself into an owner of one of the most successful stables in the country of France. In 1947, he married Eliane Fischer, who was the daughter of a successful architect. But after having two sons, Alain and Gerard, they got divorced soon in 1952.

Career

Alain Wertheimer serves as the chairman of Chanel. He owns the company with his brother Gerard, who heads the company's watch division from his home in Geneva. Being the elder of the two brothers, Alain Wertheimer primarily takes care of the business. They inherited the luxury brand company Chanel, which was co-founded by their grandfather Pierre Wertheimer, in 1996 after their father, Jacques Wertheimer, died.

Alain Wertheimer had interned at Moët & Chandon, before taking control of Chanel in 1974. It is when he started earning and gained an estimated net worth of $14.6 billion recently. When No. 5 de Chanel became a passé in fashion and perfume, he revamped the sales of the line by reducing the number of outlets from 18,000 to 12,000. He removed the perfume from drugstore shelves.

Wertheimer also invested millions of dollars in the advertisements for the brand’s cosmetics by using famous people such as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Tautou as endorsers. Such a move he made resulted in an ensured greater sense of scarcity and exclusivity for the fragrance line. Sales once again increased with the increase in the demand for the perfume.

Besides, Alain Wertheimer has presided over the acquisition of several non-Chanel brands, including Eres Lingerie and beachwear, Tanner Krolle saddles and leather goods, and Holland & Holland, a British gunsmith. Based in France, the Wertheimer brothers own French vineyards like Rauzan-Segla in Margaux, France and Chateau Canon in Saint-Emilion, both of which have won rave reviews from oenophiles.

In addition, both brothers operate an important Thoroughbred horse racing stable they call La Presle Farm or Wertheimer farm for racing in the United States and is known as Wertheimer et Frère partnership in France.

The Wertheimer would have been wealthy without their Chanel business. However, Chanel's success in the 1980s was credited with boosting the Wertheimer family's wealth to a new level, and by the late 1990s, the Wertheimer family's fortune was estimated to top $5 billion.

Alain Wertheimer moved his offices to New York, the United States in the late 1980s, reflecting Chanel's emphasis on the United States market. Although sales of high-end goods were hurt by the global recession of the early 1990s, demand began recovering in the mid-1990s and Chanel continued to expand its boutique chain and product line.

Wertheimer remained chairman of the company while Françoise Montenay, the company's CEO and president, was charged with bringing it into the next century.

Currently, Alain Wertheimer is the chairman of the company and resides in New York, United States.

Achievements

• 

  Alain Wertheimer became the co-owner of the House of Chanel in 1974. His personal net worth has been estimated to be around $14.6 billion in March 2019. His wealth, while largely inherited, has been grown through business deals and acquisitions spanning retail, wine, and horse racing. The majority of Wertheimer's fortune is derived from Chanel.
  
  With a combined net worth over $40 billion, the Wertheimer brothers are among the richest people in the world.
  
  In addition, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer's horse Solow won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes Race run during the QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot Racecourse on October 17, 2015 in Ascot, England; Queen Elizabeth II presented them the trophy.

Views

Alain Wertheimer and his brother reportedly donated to various charities and organizations that support conservationist and social causes. Recipients include the Game Conservancy Trust, Action Innocence and an unspecified orphanage in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, managed by Gerard's wife, Valerie; donation amounts are undisclosed, but contributions are reportedly made in cash.

In addition, donated to La Fondacion Fas, a Geneva-based non-profit organization committed to responding as quickly as possible to anyone suffering from alcoholism.

Moreover, they rarely attend Chanel boutique openings or other Chanel events, they never lend their names to advertising, and they eschew licensing the company name for bedsheets and aerosols. ''You can make money that way,'' Alain told Wine Spectator in one of his rare interviews. ''But that's not the way to run a family business.''

Besides, the brothers never speak about Chanel publicly. In a New York Times article from 2002, Alain Wertheimer told a reporter why he spoke with Wine Spectator and declined to comment for the paper:

"I spoke to the Wine Spectator because that's PR, that's how you sell wine. I will gladly speak to you, about the wine and the horses, because we sell the brand value. Horses are the brand value of 'Wertheimer Frères'. But I don't give interviews on Chanel because it is not useful for the Chanel business.''

Quotations: "We're in the business of selling pleasure. We don't sell handbags or haute couture. We sell dreams."

Membership

Alain Wertheimer serves as President of the Pierre J Wertheimer Foundation, a New York-based non-profit private foundation named after Wertheimer's late grandfather, but it is unclear if he participates in the activities of the organization.

Personality

Alain Wertheimer and his brother are largely tight-lipped, hardly ever speaking to the press or giving interviews about their wealth, companies, family, relationships, or hobbies. They live lavish lifestyles in private, surrounding themselves with those similarly closemouthed, and are known as fashion's quietest billionaires.

According to The New York Times, they live "like Old World aristocrats", indulging their passions for horse racing, shooting, fine wines and art collecting.

Alain and Gerard Wertheimer have an impressive art collection - Picasso, Matisse, Rousseau, and many fine Asian pieces - that grace their eight homes as well as the company's executive offices on 57th Street, yet they never allow any of the works to be loaned or photographed.

Alain Wertheimer is more cynical of the two brothers. He is steeped in money but doesn't hesitate to use his Metrocard to get around Manhattan. Similarly, he shuns the charity ball and Park Avenue dinner circuit.

In addition, both brothers are enthusiastic equestrians who inherited and operate an important Thoroughbred horse racing stable which is known as Wertheimer et Frère partnership in France.

Interests

• shooting, horse racing, fine wines, art collecting and skiing

• Artists

  Picasso, Matisse, Rousseau

• Music & Bands

  classical music

Connections

Alain Wertheimer lives with his wife, Brigitte, and their three children in a grand apartment on Fifth Avenue. He has a country home in Connecticut.

Father:

Jacques Wertheimer

Alain’s father, Jacques Wertheimer, inherited and operated his father Pierre’s business successfully. Born in 1911 and died in 1996, Jacques concentrated on the thoroughbred operations of horse racing, developing himself into an owner of one of the most successful stables in the country of France. In 1947, he married Eliane Fischer, who was the daughter of a successful architect. But after having two sons, they got divorced soon in 1952.

Mother:

Eliane Fischer

Eliane Fischer was the daughter of a successful architect.

Wife:

Brigitte Wertheimer

Brother:

Gerard Wertheimer

Gerard Wertheimer is the one and only sibling of Alain Wertheimer, with whom he co-owns almost all of his businesses, vineyards, properties and horse breeds. Born in 1951, Gerard is the younger brother of Alain. He controls the watch division of Chanel, and resides in Switzerland. He is married to Valérie Wertheimer, with whom he has three children, Paloma, Olivette and Juan, all of whom are less than 15 years of age.

great grandfather:

Ernest Wertheimer

Grandfather:

Pierre Wertheimer

Alain’s grandfather was Pierre Wertheimer, a French industrialist, who, with his brother Paul, founded Les Parfums Chanel, which began making and distributing fashion designer Coco Chanel's No. 5 fragrance in 1924.

Pierre Wertheimer was also an avid horseman who began one of the world's great racing dynasties.

grandmother:

Germaine Revel

Germaine Revel was the daughter of a successful stockbroker and a Lazard family member of the investment bankers.

colleague:

Karl Lagerfeld

In 1983, the Wertheimer brothers appointed Karl Lagerfeld as the artistic director of Chanel's fashion division.