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If the life of Philippe d'Ornano (Paris, 1964) were a novel, with a little poetic license it could be entitled 'Chronicle of a life foretold'. Perhaps it would even form part of his library. As he himself states, "I read 50 books a year, essential when it comes to balancing professional and personal life", so mixed in his case since his childhood. Because since 2013, the president of Sisley, the cosmetics company founded in 1976 by his parents, Hubert and Isabelle, was already working as a child without leaving home.
The business stays at home
"I earned money by handwriting letters to customers, so we could make sure they opened them without suspecting they were advertising," he recalls in French-accented English because, he confesses, he is the worst Spanish-speaking member of the family (one of his sisters lives in Madrid and his mother did the same in her youth). We can blame it on the fact that he has been the most Willy Fog, as he was responsible, at the beginning, for the international development of the brand, which today is present in 110 countries and has a turnover that has more than doubled in the last decade.
At Sisley, things have always been forged at home. Isabelle d'Ornano, the matriarch is still the owner, as is her son, and her daughter Christine and granddaughter Daria are active in the company today. The father, Hubert, 'was Sisley' until his passing in 2015. Although cosmetics was lived in the family, "working with my parents came as something unexpected, although natural, because of my brother's death. I was going to work in press in the United States, I changed my plans in three weeks, here I stayed." It was 1986.
Almost 50 years after the birth of Sisley, a little more than...