![L’Oréal’s François Dalle[Credits : Frédéric Huijbregts/Corbis]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/96/91596-003-C1054B0D.gif)
French business executive (b. March 18, 1918, Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France—d. Aug. 9, 2005, Geneva, Switz.), in his role as CEO (1957–84), built L’Oréal SA from a small French producer of salon-based hair products into a global mass marketer of cosmetics and fragrances, which included not only consumer products under the L’Oréal name but also such prestigious luxury brands as Lancôme, Garnier, Cacharel, Guy Laroche, Giorgio Armani, Helena Rubinstein, and Ralph Lauren. Dalle studied law at the University of Paris. Drafted into the army at the beginning of World War II, he was captured by the Nazis but escaped and joined the Resistance. At L’Oréal, Dalle rose through the ranks under founder Eugène Schueller, and when Schueller died in 1957, Dalle succeeded him as corporate CEO.
Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.
If you think a reference to this article on "Francois Leon Marie-Joseph Dalle" will enhance your Web site,
blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article,
and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.
You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.
We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.
Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.