Bruno Bich

Bruno Bich, the 36th French fortune with 1,345 million euros, is one of eleven children of Baron Marcel Bich, who founded in 1950, the group of pens, razors and disposable lighters Bic.

In October 1945 when the brand started, it's called PPA (Penholder, Pencils and Accessories). In 1953 the company took the name Bic, the shortcut of family name Bich. The brand is now present on five continents, in over 160 countries. It is the third French brand best known on the planet, after Dior and Chanel.

Bruno Bich studied in the private school Sainte-Croix at Neuilly then to the University of New York where he got a degree in marketing and finance. He began his career in an investment bank in Manhattan. In 1975, twenty-eight years old, he joined the family business and leads the U.S. subsidiary Bic Corp..

For eleven years, he led with an iron hand the U.S. subsidiary, installed since 1958 (when Marcel Bich bought the Waterman pens). His work is paying off, at the point of making the company one of the fastest growing subsidiaries and the most profitable in the group. This is Bruno Bich, who developed the advertising print on pens and built a factory specializing in this activity in Florida.

After more than thirty years in the United States, he returned to headquarters, at Clichy, and took over from his father. In 1993, shortly before the death of his father (in 1994), he became Chairman of the group. He will be the CEO of Bic for 13 years before retiring in April 2006 and appointed Mario Guevara as director general of the empire. He remains non-executive chairman of Bic.

In 1997, Bruno Bich bought the American Sheaffer and the German Tipp-Ex.