• L’Oréal plans CEO succession as Nicolas Hieronimus approaches retirement
• Bettencourt Meyers family plays central role in succession decision
• US chief Alexis Perakis-Valat and former China CEO Fabrice Megarbane tipped for top job

L’Oréal is taking steps toward planning for its next CEO as Nicolas Hieronimus approaches the company’s retirement age for the top job, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The Bettencourt Meyers family, the cosmetics giant’s largest shareholder at 34.76%, is looking at potential successors to lead L’Oréal, which recently surpassed LVMH to become France’s most valuable listed company by market capitalization.

Swiss consumer foods giant Nestlé, owning 20.2% of L’Oréal as its second largest shareholder, also has an interest in the matter, but “if the family doesn’t agree, it doesn’t happen, so it’s the family that decides,” one of the sources said.

Two longtime L’Oréal insiders are emerging as potential contenders to take the helm, the first source said.

The discussions around succession come as Hieronimus, who took over as CEO from current Chairman Jean-Paul Agon in 2021, turns 63 in January. The company last announced a CEO transition in 2020, noting that the “company’s articles of association do not provide for any exception to the legal retirement age of 65 years.”

Alexis Perakis-Valat, who leads L’Oréal’s US business, is currently seen as the leading potential candidate to succeed Hieronimus, according to one of the sources, who compared his leadership style to Agon’s.

Perakis-Valat has spent more than three decades at L’Oréal and previously led its Consumer Products division for nine years.

Fabrice Megarbane is another potential contender, the source continued. Megarbane has spent more than 25 years at L’Oréal and has held senior roles across several of its key markets, including as CEO of L’Oréal China.

Both the US and China are key regions for L’Oréal and the beauty industry overall.

The board will ultimately appoint L’Oréal’s next CEO, but the Bettencourt Meyers family plays a significant role in shaping the decision.

“Officially, the board picks the CEO, but unofficially, it’s the Bettencourt Meyers family,” the source said. “This is going to be like Succession, and it’s about to start.”

Two members of the Bettencourt Meyers family sit on L’Oréal’s board: Jean-Victor Meyers and Nicolas Meyers. Their mother, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, granddaughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, stepped down as a director last year, with Société Téthys, the family’s holding company, taking her seat.

“I am not leaving L’Oréal, but I am stepping down from its board of directors, where I served for 28 years,” she told AFP at the time.

Téthys is chaired by Bettencourt Meyers, while her husband, Jean-Pierre Meyers, serves as CEO.

L’Oréal and Nestlé declined to comment. Téthys didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Nestlé holds two seats on the board, with the group represented by Pablo Isla and Anna Lenz, reflecting the companies’ longstanding ties. Those ties date back to the 1970s, when the Swiss food giant entered L’Oréal’s shareholder base as a strategic partner in a move intended to help shield the cosmetics group from a potential outside takeover, according to other sources.

Overall, L’Oréal’s board has 18 members, including its chairman and CEO, nine independent directors and two directors representing employees.

Pablo Isla and Jean Victor Meyers are both vice chairmen of the board.

Under Hieronimus’s leadership, L’Oréal has undergone a transformation that has pushed the group deeper into premium and luxury beauty, fuelled in large part by acquisitions and investments.

His eventual departure is expected to be watched closely by the market and L’Oréal’s biggest competitors, particularly Estée Lauder and Puig.

The two companies ended merger talks in May that could have created a stronger rival to L’Oréal, by far the world’s largest beauty company by sales and market value.

L’Oréal has around 40 international brands, a portfolio Hieronimus recently framed around two pillars: glamour and health. Among its biggest moves, L’Oréal acquired Australian prestige beauty label Aesop for around USD 2.5bn in 2023 and built a roughly 20% stake in dermatology company Galderma.

That dealmaking activity accelerated further last year, when L’Oréal made 2025 a record year for acquisitions and struck the largest deal in its history.

The company inked a EUR 4bn deal with Kering that includes fragrance house Creed and long-term beauty and fragrance licenses for fashion houses Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Gucci Beauty, which L’Oréal internally expects to become its next crown brand.

As L’Oréal prepares to integrate its landmark Kering deal and an increasingly broad portfolio of beauty and dermatology assets, the question taking shape behind the scenes is who will get to oversee its next chapter.