I was in Maastricht when I learnt that Monsieur de Givenchy had passed away.
At the age of 51, I have acquired the conviction that a professional life is a construction that we build through the people we meet, some more significant than others, some decisive.
It was Hugues Joffre – the then Chief Executive of Christie’s France who recruited me to become Managing Director – who proposed the position of Chairman of the Board to Hubert.
It is thanks to Hugues – and to Christie’s – that I met him.
In the context of one of my principle missions of the moment, which was to build the operational framework of the Parisian office of the company, particularly in the domains of human resources as well as the development of the premises at avenue Matignon, the presence of Hubert often proved to be a genuine resource for me.
He later accepted a seat on the Board of Lasartis, the advisory company that Hugues and I set up after we had moved on from Christie’s.
On his own initiative, Hubert organized a reception for us in his Parisian home to which he invited close friends to help launch us.
I started out in the Haute Couture industry. For everybody there, just as there was Monsieur Dior, or Monsieur Saint-Laurent, there was Monsieur de Givenchy.
Amongst the people I met who happened to be decisive in my professional life, there was Monsieur de Givenchy.