Olivier Dassault was a French politician, photographer and billionaire who was a member of the National Assembly of France. He is known to have served as a professional IFR pilot and reserve commander for the French Air Force, where he set the highest speed records in the world.
Wiki/Biography
Olivier Dassault was born on Friday, June 1, 1951 (69 years old at the time of his death), in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. Her zodiac sign is Gemini. In 1974, he graduated from the Salon-de-Provence Air School as a combat engineering officer and pilot. He obtained his DEA (Diploma of advanced studies equivalent to a master’s degree) in mathematical decision-making sciences in 1976. In 1980, he obtained his doctorate in computer management.
Physical appearance
- Height (approx.) : 5′ 8 feet
- Eye colour: Green
- Hair color: Salt and pepper
Family and ethnicity
He belonged to a family of Jewish origin with the surname “Bloch”. His grandfather changed his surname to “Dassault” and converted to Catholicism later in life.
Parents, siblings
He was born to Serge Dassault, businessman and politician, and Nicole Raffel (president of Dassault Groupe.)
Olivier Dassault’s parents
His brother, Laurent Dassault (born July 7, 1953; 68), is a businessman. He had another brother named Thierry Dassault (b. March 26, 1957; 64 years old), a French billionaire investor and entrepreneur. He had a sister named Marie-Hélène Habert-Dassault, a philanthropist, and was appointed head of the French aeronautics and defense empire built by Serge Dassault after the death of Olivier Dassault.
Olivier Dassault with his siblings
He is the grandson of Marcel Dassault (January 22, 1892 – April 17, 1986), French industrialist and founder of the Dassault group.
Marcel Dassault
wife and children
In 1989, he married Carole Tranchant (professor at the Université de Moncton) then divorced. The couple had a daughter Helena Dassault (b. 1990.)
A wedding photo of Olivier Dassault and his first wife, Carole Tranchant
Olivier Dassault with his daughter
In 2009, he married Natacha Nikolajevic (French artist and art gallery owner.)
Olivier Dassault and Natacha Nikolajevic, his second wife
He had two children with Natacha Nikolajevic-Rémi (born in 1995); Thomas (born in 2011).
Olivier Dassault with his son Rémi
Career
As an Air Force officer
His career as an Air Force officer began in 1975. His highest speed records include:
- 1977: New York to Paris in a Dassault Falcon 50 (with Hervé Leprince-Ringuet)
- 1987: New Orleans to Paris in a Dassault Falcon 900
- 1996: Paris to Abu Dhabi in a Falcon 900 EX
- 1996: Paris to Abu Dhabi in Falcon 900 EX (both with Guy Mitaux-Maurouard and Patrick Experton)
As a businessman
After the death of his grandfather in 1986, his father appointed him deputy director of Dassault Falcon Service, SARL, and director of civil aeronautics strategy for Dassault Aviation. He was vice-president of the publishing house Valmonde, which publishes magazines such as Le Spectacle du monde, Jours de Chasse and Valeurs contemporaines.
The cover photo of Jours de Chasse
He also administered the publishing company Socpresse, which published the conservative daily Le Figaro, the weekly L’Express and the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.
A layout of the newspaper Le Figaro
In 2011, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors of the Dassault group, but then resigned on the grounds that his role as a businessman was incompatible with his mandate as a deputy; he was succeeded by his sister, Helen.
As a politician
After being part of the Council of Paris (1977-1989) alongside Mayor Jacques Chirac, he fought in the legislative elections on the candidacy of the Rally for the Republic (RPR) of the 1st district of Oise in 1988 and took it away.
Olivier Dassault municipal councilor of Paris with the mayor Jacques Chirac
He again won the 1993 elections on the candidacy of the RPR. He was deputy for the 1st constituency of Oise in the candidacy of the Union for a popular movement (UMP) in the elections of 2002, 2003 and 2007, and in the candidacy of the Republicans (LR) in 2012 and 2017. He also wanted to do local politics and fought municipal elections. In 1995, he fought again in the municipal elections of Beauvais but lost. In 1992, he became vice-president of the regional council of Picardy. As a member of the UMP party in the National Assembly, he headed the finance committee. He has held various positions as President of Parliament, including the Parliamentary Intergroup on Communication (1995-96), President of Club Partnership France (since 1996) and President of the Entrepreneurs Committee for Republicans (2015). Among these parliamentary positions, Olivier Dassault supported the restoration of the death penalty in France. In April 2004, Olivier signed a bill to restore the death penalty for perpetrators of acts of terrorism. In 2011, he said he was against legalizing same-sex marriage.
Photography
At the end of the sixties, he launched into portrait photography. He first photographed French film actresses Jane Birkin, Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert, then turned to abstract photography.
Jane Birkin photographed by Olivier Dassault
He has published thirteen photographic works in France and elsewhere such as Houston, Jerusalem and Palm Springs.
ODs Bar (Abstract Photography) by Olivier Dassault
Other works
He started his work in the French entertainment industry as a film producer and later opened an advertising agency (which he later sold to someone else). In 1975, he began to compose the music for the short film “Camera”. He made his film debut as a composer with “Une fille cousue de fil blanc” (1977) and composed many other French films. He made his television debut as a composer with the French series “Le Crime d’Ovide Plouffe (1984)”. In 2007, he became a writer with his book “La France en majuscules”.
The cover of France in capital letters by Olivier Dassault
Honors and Achievements
- Knight of the Legion of Honour
- Officer of the National Order of Merit
- Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters
- Ranked 361st on the Forbes list of billionaires 2020
Death
On March 7, 2021, at the age of 69, he died in a helicopter accident in Touques in the north-west of France, while he was leaving for the weekend in his vacation home in Normandy. The pilot also died in the accident. After his death, the prosecution of Lisieux (Calvados) announced that it had opened a judicial investigation for manslaughter.
controversies
French media reports that Dassault Aviation paid 1 million euros to the “middleman” – a man from India. The report said the French aircraft manufacturer had paid the amount to Defsys Solutions for 50 models of the aircraft which were to be delivered as “gifts”.
Net value
As of September 2020, his net worth was $4.7 billion and he was considered the 361st richest man in the world.
Properties
- Holiday home in Normandy in the north of France
- Corales at the Puntacana Resort and Club in Punta Cana, with his wife
Olivier Dassault’s house in Corales at the Puntacana Resort and Club
- A domain in Sologne, one of the most prized by genuine hunting owners
Olivier Dassault’s property in Sologne
- Properties in Salbris and Les Châtelliers-Châteaumur in France
Favorites
- Photographer(s): Lucien Clergue, Sarah Moon, Helmut Newton, Bettina Rheims, Peter Beard, Olivier Föllmi, Ernst Haas
- Delivered: ‘The eye listens’ by Paul Claudel
- Drink: Earl Gray tea from Russia
- Artist: Maurice Marine
Facts / Anecdotes
- In his spare time he enjoyed golfing, swimming, playing chess, reading and attending art exhibitions.
- One of his hobbies was hunting, which he usually practiced in Sologne, a popular place for hunters.
A photo of Olivier Dassault with his weapon
- He was the heir to the family group of aerospace and software companies, the Dassault Group, which began during World War I after his grandfather, Marcel, founded Dassault Aviation and sold propellers during the war; the group builds the famous Rafale fighter planes. The family owns a cellar. In 2018, Forbes estimated the Dassault family at $22.6 billion.
- Olivier Dassault founded the Association d’Entraide, which supports the elderly and disadvantaged in the Oise.
- In July 2002, he founded “Génération Entreprise” with Jean-Michel Fourgous and Hervé Novelli. Génération Entreprise is a parliamentary study group which he chaired from October 2012 until his death. Génération Entreprise is associated with 120 parliamentarians.
- He also chaired the France-Saudi Arabia friendship group in the National Assembly during the 14th legislature.
- Talking about his style of photography and the inspiration behind his photos in an interview, he said:
Several great photographers have marked me. I am a colorist and yet I admire the masters of black and white: Ronis, Steichen, Doisneau. Brassaï’s passion for sidewalks and walls opened my eyes to street art. I am also touched by the way Lucien Clergue, Sarah Moon and Helmut Newton have shown the body. There would be many other artists to mention such as Bettina Rheims, Peter Beard, Olivier Föllmi… Without forgetting Ernst Haas, particularly important for understanding my turn towards abstraction. I liked to treat faces like landscapes, with a bucolic bias! Architecture and my taste for modern art later led me to explore the beauty inherent in the visual harmony of building facades, balconies or a row of chairs. The need to free myself from painting opened me up to a more abstract vision of everyday life. “
- As a teenager, he was quite shy and started photographing by clicking pictures of his sister and her girlfriends. Very quickly, he became attached to photography and decided to become a photographer. However, his parents wanted him to become an engineer and had other goals for him. They gave him the condition that he could do whatever he wanted, instead he should first become an engineer. Talking about this in an interview, he said,
I was quite a shy teenager when I started, and holding the camera helped me assert myself, both vis-à-vis the outside world and young girls! (Laughs). The camera has become my accomplice, my intimate, a part of me. I invested in photography with much more curiosity and taste than for other disciplines. I experimented in every way! Then the recognitions that followed, the sharing, when I started showing my images, only established the need I felt to create and express myself with this medium. It showed me that I was choosing the right path.
- Olivier Dassault is also the composer of the anthem of the National Assembly, giving the institution another face of its creative personality.
- The Dassaults also own the French daily Le Figaro, vineyards and a private aeronautical company.
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His first work as a photographer was “Oniropolis” (1977).
Oniropolis (1977), Olivier Dassault’s first artistic work
