Operator News

France – Partouche’s COO Jean-François Largilière passes away

By Phil - 20 December 2021

Jean-François Largilière, Chief Operating Officer of Groupe Partouche since 2013, died on Friday December 10, at the age of 57.

Fabrice Paire, Chairman of the Management Board, said: “I am deeply saddened to inform you of the death of Jean-François. Many of you will find it hard to come to terms with this news, which I am telling you so suddenly, and will be affected that you could not have shared comforting words with him, that you could not express your attachment to him, that you did not have a last exchange with him. I am sincerely sorry. Jean-François will remain in our hearts, he is an immense loss. My thoughts are with his family.”

Mr. Paire added: “Jean-François had made me promise not to tell anyone about it, he didn’t want people to know he was sick, didn’t want people to pity him, didn’t want to be seen suffering from the disease and suffering . He wanted to leave the image of the fighter, of the sporty man and in good shape, of his permanent involvement for the Group, of his capacity for work and to lead fifty subjects at the same time, of his desire to train others with him, to make them progress, to develop.”

“I don’t want people to have this image of me” he kept telling me when I went to see him not long ago, when his body was under attack. He had been fighting cancer for many months, and lived it as a fight in the ring on a daily basis, taking and returning the blows, wanting not to let go and especially not his work which was one of the engines of his existence. Due to lack of progress, he had to take a break from his treatment, “let his body rest”, but the disease did not give him that time.

Jean-François had taken his first steps in the Group at the Park Hotel in Aix-les-Bains, during the Olympic Winter Games in 1992.