AXA honours the memory of its founder Claude Bébéar 

Claude Bébéar, founder and Honorary Chairman of AXA, passed away at the age of 90. The funeral will be held in the strictest privacy. His family will soon share, in coordination with AXA and the Institut Montaigne, their wishes for those who would like to send messages or pay tribute to the memory of Claude Bébéar.

Biography of Claude Bébéar

Claude Bébéar was born on 29 July 1935 in Isaac, Dordogne. As a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (class of 1955) and the Paris Institute of Actuaries, he was recruited in 1958 by André Sahut d'Izarn, who was managing the Anciennes Mutuelles d'Assurance group in Rouen, and was looking for a future successor.
Until 1975, he assumed various responsibilities. From 1964 to 1966, he was sent to Canada where he created the life insurance branch of Provinces Unies, a subsidiary of the Anciennes Mutuelles group. There he discovered the importance of having an international vision of his business and the diversity of cultures.
In 1975, after the death of André Sahut d'Izarn and the resolution of a very tough strike which confirmed his belief in the need for a dynamic social policy, Claude Bébéar was CEO.
The same year, he created the Ancienne Mutuelle de Réassurance: AMré, which became AXA RE. In 1978, the Anciennes Mutuelles became Mutuelles Unies, and Mutuelle Parisienne de Garantie, a property and casualty insurance company that was on the verge of bankruptcy, joined the Group.

The 1980s were years of growth in France.

In 1982, he took control of the Drouot Group, the leading private insurance group at that time. Claude Bébéar took over as Chairman, on top of his position as Chairman of the Mutuelles Unies.
In 1985, the name AXA was created. Claude Bébéar gave up the operational management of the insurance companies to become Chairman and CEO of the Group.
At the same time, in 1983, he created Entreprise et Cité, an association of business leaders concerned with affirming the role of businesses within the local communities they operate in.
In April 1986, AXA bought the Présence Group. This was also the year of the creation of the Institut du Mécénat Humanitaire, which has now become the IMS (Institut du Mécénat de Solidarité). Encouraging companies to engage in humanitarian philanthropy in the same way they do in cultural or sports sponsorship was a real challenge at the time.
The Group continued its expansion by merging with Compagnie du Midi in 1988. AXA was then the 2nd largest French insurance group behind UAP. With Compagnie du Midi, it acquired Equity and Law, the sixth largest life insurance company in the UK.
In the same year, Claude Bébéar was elected Manager of the Year. He was the first representative of the financial world to receive this distinction.

The 1990s were a time of internationalization and consolidation.

The end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990 were devoted to trying to obtain authorization from the American authorities to buy Farmers, a property insurance company owned by BAT, a British conglomerate coveted by Jimmy Goldsmith. The operation did not succeed, but it allowed the Group to make enormous progress in its understanding of the US market.
This was to be a considerable asset in the demutualization and investment in Equitable. First contacts were made in January 1991, and the agreement was concluded in July of the same year with AXA taking control of the 5th largest life insurance company in the United States. It was also its first steps in third-party asset management with Alliance Capital Management, and investment banking with DLJ. In 1992, Equitable is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
AXA Hearts in Action was launched in 1990. In order to bring together the various philanthropic initiatives carried out in the Group's various companies, Claude Bébéar, after consulting with employees and tied agents in France, decided to centralize all resources on humanitarian philanthropy and to further support the 2,000 employees and agents volunteers.
In 1995, the example of Equitable was replicated in Australia; after six months of work, an agreement was reached allowing AXA to take control of the Australian Mutual, the second largest life company in Australia and Hong Kong. With National Mutual, the discovery of Asia and the Southern Hemisphere was made.
In 1996, AXA bought UAP. This was a major turning point. AXA doubled in size in France, reached critical mass in the UK, Belgium and Germany and strengthened its position in most other countries. Over a year and a half’s time, Claude Bébéar went around the world to meet his teams, explain the Group's strategy and what he expected of them.
In 1997, George Bush, former President of the United States, presented Claude Bébéar with the Point of Light Award for the most exemplary company in terms of humanitarian philanthropy. This was the first time that a non-US company received this award.
In early 1999, Guardian Royal Exchange joined AXA, bringing critical mass in property and casualty and health insurance to the UK, as well as a significant business in Germany and small operations in Asia and South America to complement the Group's existing activities. In the same year, the Group gained a foothold in the world's largest insurance market by acquiring control of Nippon Danai, the thirteenth largest life insurance company in the Japanese market.
In May 2000, Claude Bébéar handed over the chairmanship of the AXA Management Board to Henri de Castries and became Chairman of the Supervisory Board. At that time, AXA had revenues of €80 billion and 50 million customers, served by 140,000 employees worldwide.
In 2008, as he had announced, Claude Bébéar did not seek to renew his mandate as a member of the Supervisory Board. He thus applied to himself a principle that he had defended in the past, namely the non-renewal of the mandate of a member over the age of 70.
Claude Bébéar was Honorary Chairman of AXA. Since 2015, he was also Honorary Chairman of the Institut Montaigne, an independent political think tank which he founded and chaired.