Jean-Claude Decaux (15 September 1937 – 27 May 2016)[1] was a French businessman and [2][3] founder of advertising company JCDecaux. The company is now run by his sons, Jean-François Decaux and Jean-Charles Decaux.[2][3]
Jean-Claude Decaux was the son of a shoe salesman in Beauvais, France.[4]
He was married with three children and lived in Paris.[5]
He died on 27 May 2016 aged 78.[6][7][8]
At the age of 18, inspired by an argument with his father over the family shoe store's window display, Jean-Claude started a business creating billboards along French roadways.[4] In 1963, legislation in France placed restrictions on billboard use which forced Decaux out of business.[9] He founded JCDecaux in 1964.[10] He made a deal with the city of Lyon, proposing that he would build bus shelters and keep them clean in exchange for advertising space there. The company quickly expanded to other cities.[11]
In 1980, Decaux personally designed the Sanisette public toilet, a self-cleaning public toilet, as a replacement for the pissoirs of Paris.[4][12]
In January 2015, according to Forbes, he had a net worth of $6.2 billion.[5]