Quick Facts
Biography
Jean Frydman is a French resistant and businessman.
Resistant
During World War II, at the age of 15 he rallied the France libre. In the summer of 1944, he escaped from the deportation train that was taking him and many others from Drancy (Internment Camp in France) to Buchenwald. One of the deportees in the same train car was Marcel Dassault.
Man of communication
He was among the first managers of the radio Europe 1 between 1957 and 1962; he headed Télé Monte Carlo, and was then director of the advertising agency Régie n°1. He was dubbed «the secret gardener of the French audiovisual sector».
Businessman
After having been forced to leave the Board of Paravision, audiovisual branch of L'Oréal, he revealed the past life of André Bettencourt during WW2, forcing him to express regrets about « past mistakes ».
A man of peace
Pursuing peace and compromise, he advised Yitzhak Rabin et Ehud Barak.
Frydman serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations.
Private life
Jewish, Frydman is married to Daniela.
He is a friend of the former French President, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and former IMF Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
References, external links
- Michel Bar-Zohar, Bitter Scent: The Case of L'Oréal, Nazis, and the Arab Boycott (London, Dutton Books : 1996)
- (French) Élie Barnavi, "Jean Frydman, Tableaux d'une vie", ISBN 978-2-02-090818-4, 2008
- (French) Jean-Pierre Chaline, « André Bettencourt (1919-2007) », dans Études normandes ISSN 0014-2158, 2008-1