Jean-Paul Elkann (28 December 1921 – 23 November 1996) was a French banker. He was president of Compagnie Financière Jean-Paul Elkann (CFJPE).
Biography
Early life and education
Born in Paris, Jean-Paul Elkann was the son of Montbéliard-born industrialist Armand Elkann (1882–1962) and his wife Berthe Bloch. He was raised at Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris. He was admitted to study at Polytechnique in 1940 but left France with his family to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions.
Along with his father, Elkann entered the metallurgical industry. Soon after, he became the owner and president of the companies Vanadium Steel Italiana from 1948, Vanadium Alloys Steel Canada (since 1950), and Vice President of Vanadium Alloys Steel USA from 1953.[3]
Although he was himself a non-practicing Jew, he supported the Orthodox movement. As quoted by the Chief Rabbi, Michel Gugenheim, Elkann told the leader of Reform Judaism in the United States, Alexander Schindler: "The only difference between you and me, Mr. rabbi, is that I violate the law, but I do not change it, and you want to change the law." He was also the vice president of the France-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the chairman of the Association de coopération économique France-Israël, HaifaTechnion governor, administrator of Yabné school, administrator of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, and vice chairman of the Social Action Committee Israelite de Paris (CASIP).[5]
Elkann married in New York Carla Ovazza (1922–2000), heir to a Jewish banking family in Turin, and Ettore Ovazza's niece, whom he met at Columbia University. They have a son, Alain Elkann, who was born in New York in 1950 and was married in 1975 to the influential Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat, Gianni Agnelli's daughter, Margherita Agnelli, from whom they have three descendants: John Elkann, Lapo Elkann, and Ginevra Elkann. Since Edoardo Agnelli's mysterious passing, Gianni Agnelli has chosen John Elkann as the heir to the family estate.
After divorce, Elkann Jean remarried on 9 November 1953, to Francoise Schuhl, with whom he had a daughter, Brigitte Elkann. He died on 23 November 1996, in Paris.
^Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Thomson Gale, Volume 6, P. 358
^Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Thomson Gale, Volume 6, P. 358
^Major Companies of Europe 1991–1992 Vol. 1 : Major Companies of the Continental European Community, R. M. Whiteside, Springer Science & Business Media, Azar 16, 1391 AP