Bellon family

The Bellon Family is worth an estimated $5.9 billion, based on the success of the Sodexo company founded by Pierre Bellon in 1966. Having expanded internationally throughout the 1970s, it is estimated to feed 100 million people in 80 countries every day. After 50 years at the company, Pierre retired as chairman of Sodexo in 2016, aged 86 years old, leaving a spot for his daughter Sophie to take up the reins. She had joined the company in 1994 after a career in the United States as an M&A consultant for Credit Lyonnais and then as an agent for major international fashion brands. She was appointed Group Relations Director in 2005 and led the Sodexo business in France between 2008 and 2013, when she was appointed Vice-President of the Board of Directors. All three of his other children, Astrid, Nathalie and Francois-Xavier, have had long careers within the company and currently sit on the company’s board of directors. His brother, Bernard, also serves as a Director of the company and is a founding member of The Pierre Bellon Foundation for Human Development, which has as its focus the betterment of young people who find themselves in difficulty, both in France and abroad. The foundation finances projects in the public interest that are broadly aimed at the fulfilment of human potential, improving work opportunities and encouraging literacy. Incepted in March 2011, it was co-founded by Bernard and Pierre’s two children Nathalie and Francois-Xavier.