Bernard Lacoste was a French fashion designer and businessman.

Biography

Lacoste was the son of René Lacoste

René Lacoste

Jean René Lacoste was a French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" by fans because of his tenacity on the court; he is also known worldwide as the namesake of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929.Lacoste was one of The Four Musketeers, French tennis...

, the founder of the fashion company Lacoste. He attended high school in France and earned the Bachelor of Science at Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 in the USA. From February 1954 until February 1956 he was a Lieutenant in the French Air Force

French Air Force

The French Air Force , literally Army of the Air) is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, then was made an independent military arm in 1933...

. From 1956 until 1963 he worked at General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 in France.

In 1964 he took the position as head of the internationally known company Lacoste. When he took over the company, it was producing ca 300,000 articles of clothing per year. In 2005, the figure was almost 50 million, which were sold in 110 countries. The company had a gross revenue of billions of US dollars.

In September 2005 he gave over direction of the company to his brother Michel Lacoste due to poor health. Six months later, he died after a long illness at the age of 74.

Awards

• Companion Member of the Textile Institute (seit 1995)
• Officer of the Légion d'honneur
  Légion d'honneur
  The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
  
   on 11 April 2001
• Knight of the Légion d'honneur on 24 March 1989
• Knight of the Ordre national du Mérite
  Ordre National du Mérite
  The Ordre national du Mérite is an Order of State awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle...
  
  on 23 December 1982

Further activities

• since 2002: Regular Member of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI)
• since 1997: Director of the General Meeting of Comité Français des Manifestations à l’Etranger
• since 1995: Director of the World Federation Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI)
• From 1992 to 1997: Active member of the General Meeting of Comité Français des Manifestations Economiques à l’Etranger (CFME)
• since 1988: Director of Union des Fabricants
• since 1986: Active member of the Comité Vendôme
• since 1984: Member of the Comité Colbert
• since 1981: Honorary vice president of the French Federation of Sporting Goods Industry (FIFAS)
• From 1980 to 1983: Director of Centre Français du Commerce Extérieur (CFCE)
• From 1970 to 1974: President of the Neuilly Tennis Association
• From 1981 to 1981: Vice president of the Fédération Française d’Articles de Sport
• From 1966 to 1981: Director of Fédération Française d’Articles de Sport