User:ECharlotteDetur/English Trad.Alexandre Allard 2015

 Alexandre Allard

Alexandre Allard (born in Washington, October 11th 1969, Alexandre Allard is a French business man, known for the creation and the sales of Consodata and the restoration of the Legendary Palace-Hotel Royal Monceau in Paris, France. He is currently developing a real estate and cultural project in Sao Paulo in Brazil .

Early Life
Older son of 3 children,his father is engineer in public sectors and his mother is a math teacher. He grew up in Abidjan in Ivory Coast in Africa until 15 years old. He arrived in France in 1984 and became pensioner at the Saint Martin de France school until is bachelor's degree.

New technologies and business
After his bachelor's degree, he has started its business endeavors and opened his first office in a former butcher's shop,located in Puteaux near by Paris. He developed Seaway Promer SARL in 1987, a company specialized in computer-assisted publishing's system with his cousins Pierre-Yves Gires. Thanks to the innovative services of the company, many advertising agencies and firms in quest of innovative solutions and quality have appointed Seaway Promer to realize their print material. It became one of the leaders of the artistic direction of magazines such as Stratégies, l’Expansion, The Nouvel Economiste and also, advertising groups such as BDDP, RSCG, Mc Cann Erikson, Publicis, BBDO, Interpublic, etc. In 1990, he launched Equation Graphique, a company focused on artistic directions for magazines. He started Pschitt in 1991 with Laurent Tordjman, pioneering in the digital engraving. Those innovative technologies awarded him from the Jacques Douce Young Entrepreneurs award in 1990 and 1992. In 1991, he partnered with Gerard Bonvicini to create Diacom SA. a company of 300 employees in Paris. Aware of the inexorable boom of the individual communication and of the lack of knowledge about technologies of information, Diacom SA created an innovative system based Macintosh's system to host the first database. Creative frontrunner of relationship marketing, the company was at the origin of the the beginning of the Customer Relationship Management. Diacom SA became one of the privileged partner of L'Oreal, BMW, Procter & Gamble. He met with Cisco System and developed the first Oracle database connected to Internet in 1994. The company had also business partnership with the Silicon Valley and used to work for Northern Telecom, Digital Equipment, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, Appel and Microsoft. The company won the Effie award of advertising in France in 1995.

Consodata
By the early 90's, where as individual marketing becomes more influential thant advertising, Alexandre Allard decides to create a mutualized database shared by all the advertisers. He sold his others companies to focus on Consodata from there. In five years, Consodata became the leader in the consumers information's files and the biggest database with 580 milions home recorded and more than 10 000 clients. The company have been floated in the stock exchange in Paris in 1999. In 2000, Consodata is bought by Telecom Italia for 500 millions of Euros .

Business and creativity
From the 2000's, Alexandre Allard focus in real estate projects that comprise a high cultural dimension.

Qianmen
Alexandre Allard developed many real estate refurbishment operations of listed building in Paris, Spain, Italia, London, Miami and Morroco. In 2004, alongside the Maeght Foundation of Art and the arquitect Christophe Dorey, he started the rehabilitation of Quianmen, a district located in the historical center of Beijing. En 2006 he succeeded in having this area listed and protected by the City in cultural heritage.

Royal Monceau Hotel-Palace
After his attempt to buy the Conference Center of Paris Foreign Office for 368 000 000 euros, Alexandre Allard bought the legendary Palace Royal Monceau, which was facing financial difficulties, in June 2007. The renovation has been initiated with the auction of the furniture of the former hotel. The sales of the auction reachs 3,3 millions.

The Demolition party
In June 26th 2008, Alexandre Allard has invited thousands of guests and celebrities to be a part of an artistic performance. With helmet and hammer, they were invited to demolish the rooms, corridors and walls of the hotel. Meanwhile, 20 artists has occupied the venue with art works, videos, music and performances. Amongst them : Arne Quinze, Wang Du, André, Jean Feldman, Chen Man, Mondino, Irina Volkonskii, Xavier Veilhan, Nicolas Ullman, Daniel Toledo, Arne Quinze, Roberto Cabot. The event won Lion Cannes' award in 2008 and the Best even Grand Prix Stratégies award as well.

The rebirth of  Royal Monceau
Philippe Starck has been appointed by Alexandre Allard to design the new place’s spirit. Opened in 2010, the hotel has been acclaimed by the travel & Leisure critics : Best Hotel in Europe, Best spa, best restaurant best break-fast by the Michelin, CondeNast Traveler

The Hotel de la Marine
With Jean Nouvel and the former Minister of Culture and communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Alexandre Allard proposed a project for the Hotel de la Marine,located on the Place de la Concorde, after the call for projects launched by French State. Former royal Garde-meuble built by Gabriel, it was the stimulus point of the decorative tendencies and art creation in France at the end of the 18th century. The building has been a crucial flagpole of the French navy history for two centuries. For Alexandre Allard,this brilliant history calls a custom-built project : La Royale. The project would give back its function to what was originally the royal Garde-meuble : to be the talents' showcase which will enable to promote art and creativity. Creation, performing art and exhibition spaces for artists and craftsmen would transform the building into a landmark for the city. Parisians and tourists would be able to discover a major site of national heritage and the best of the art and crafts or art creation. Nevertheless, the project has faced reluctances despite the commitment announced to refurbish it completely. Nicolas Sarkozy decided to put the call for projects on hold in order to avoid polemic and named Valery Giscard d’Estaing who already declared his wish to keep the monument occupied by the State, at the head of a commission responsible for thinking about the Hotel de la Marine's future. Although 181 personalities of the cultural and art world has signed a letter as a gesture of support towards the project La Royale, published in Le Monde, in September 15th, the commission published a report, in September 19th saying his wish to maintain the administration's in it. In 24th of January, Nicolas Sarkosy declared his intention to have the recommendation of the report made by the commission realized.

Cidade Matarazzo
Linked to the Paulista Avenue, the epicenter of São Paulo, by a pedestrian way, the former Matarazzo hospital is one of the last preserved historical landmarks of the city. Protected by the Brazilian building preservation laws, it still comprises XIXth century Italian inspiration’s architecture. Acquired by Groupe Allard in 2011 to develop a project focused on culture, the 3 hectares Matarazzo’ site is in phase of restoration. The project has been already approved by the city and fedetal state. The opening is scheduled in 2018. The Pritzer-price winning Jean Nouvel, the designer Philippe Starck have been appointed to work respectively on the architecture and the interior design of the former Maternity attenant to the hospital and will contribute to the revitalization of the venue abandoned in 1993

Made by...Feito por Brasileiros
Presented as a preview of the upcoming Cidade Matatarazzo’s spirit. A “creative invasion” of artists heralded the return to life of the former Umberto Primo Hospital, known as the Hospital Matarazzo. Conceived by Alexandre Allard, the exhibition gathered 100 artists that occupied the venue from September 5th to October 12th. Amongst them Beatriz Milhazes, Vik Muniz, Xavier Veilhan, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Joana Vasconcelos. Made by... Feito Por Brasileiros had been awared by the APCA as the best Culture event of the year in 2014.

Balmain
From 2005, Alexandre Allard develop business aiming at federate and valorize creativity and crafts. He became shareholder of the famous French Maison de Couture Balmain in 2005 and worked alongside Alain Hivelin to give a new birth to the brand.

Faith Connexion
In 2009, Alexandre Allard bought the Parisian pret-à-porter Brand Faith Connexion. With a a new team of designers, the brand collaborated with Annabelle Dexter Jones in 2012 to launch a capsule collection and with Isabeli Fontana, as well in 2013. From 2014, the brand extended his design studio and start to create a male collection. Faith Connexion also has launched in 2015 a new economic model called Circle of Faith, with the objective to balance the gross repartition between the brand and retailers and help young designers to promote their works as well.

Notes and references
http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/in-paris-faith-connexion-challenges-the-fashion-gospel