User:MsWalders/Diane Barrière-Desseigne

Diane Barrière-Desseigne, born on January 9, 1957 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris and died on May 18, 2001 at the American Hospital in Paris, was a businesswoman and heiress to the Lucien Barrière group.

Origins
Her mother, Martha Szentgyörgyi, was an acrobatic artist born in Hungary in 1919, who fled her country during the Second World War; she died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 2008.

Her adoptive father, Lucien Barrière, adopted her when he married her mother.

Education
Diane Barrière studied at the Lycée Capron in Cannes, then at Paris-Dauphine University. She holds a master's degree in finance and taxation.

Private and family life
On November 10, 1975, she married Thierry Gaubert, from whom she divorced on June 19, 1979. She remarried Dominique Desseigne, a Paris notary, on April 7, 1984. They have two children, Joy and Alexandre.

Lucien Barrière Group
Diane Barrière-Desseigne succeeded her adoptive father Lucien Barrière on the latter's death in 1990. At the head of Groupe Lucien Barrière, with 60% of the group's capital in her possession, she successfully pursued the policy of her predecessors until her death in 2001 from respiratory failure.

In 1997, Diane Barrière-Desseigne was indicted for misuse of corporate assets, concealment of assets, abuse of majority voting rights and presentation of false balance sheets. In 1991, Diane Barrière-Desseigne had to pay high inheritance taxes following the death of her father, and suggested to businessman Jean-Marc Oury a financial scheme to divert the payment of part of these inheritance taxes.

Literature
Diane Barrière-Desseigne is mentioned in Hallier l'Edernel jeune homme, published in 2016, in reference to the restaurant at Hôtel Fouquet's Barrière, which in the early 2010s was named after her.