A new president for the Fédération des entreprises de la beauté: this is what its board of directors has decided. After more than 16 years at the head of the FEBEA (professional union of the cosmetics sector), Alain Grangé-Cabane, who will remain its honorary president, will hand over his functions to Patrick O'Quin on July 1st. Portrait.
Patrick O'Quin is a former student of the ENA (Voltaire promotion, please) after a degree in Sciences-Po and two degrees (Law and History). He started his career in administration.
First assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture as Civil Administrator in 1980, he was Technical Adviser in the Cabinet of the Minister of European Affairs from 1984 to 1986, then during the following nine years, held various international responsibilities in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs or Cooperation.
He left the administration in 1995 to join the corporate world, first as Director of Environmental Relations at Kronenbourg Breweries.
In 1998, he was appointed Director of Corporate External Relations for the Danone Group, then in 2010, became Director of Governmental and Multilateral Affairs.
His duties included dealing with the group's relations with various non-commercial partners (public institutions, regulatory bodies, scientific bodies, professional federations, non-governmental organisations, consumer associations, etc.): an experience that prompted the FEBEA to poach him.
What prompted Patrick O'Quin to leave yoghurt for cosmetic cream? "It is first of all the prestige of this sector" he says today,"where the quality of products manufactured by companies established in France is renowned in more than 200 countries where our operators export. …