Claude Dauphin, born in 1951 and died on September 30, 2015, he was a French billionaire businessman, and executive chairman of Trafigura Beheer BV, a company specialising in commodity trading (oil, metals, ores).
He had previously served as Trafigura’s chairman and CEO. In March 2013 his net wealth was estimated at $1 billion by Forbes.
He died in the early hours of September 30, 2015 in a hospital in Bogota, Colombia, after a hard-fought battle with cancer.
Claude worked for nearly 22 years as an oil executive at Victoria Trading Services (UK) Ltd.
In 1990, at the age of 39, he assumed his first directorship.
The following year he became a director at A.O.I. (UK) Ltd. He moved to Marc Rich & Co. (now Glencore) from 1991 to 1992.
In 1993 Claude and several other senior traders at Marc Rich founded Trafigura.
Trafigura is known for its role in the 2006 Ivory Coast toxic waste dump environmental disaster.
Claude and four others were imprisoned in Ivory Coast for five months on charges of dumping toxic waste; afterward they were released and all charges were dropped.
While Trafigura denied responsibility and culpability, it paid €1.3 million in an out-of-court settlement.
Claude was known to communicate with lenders and bondholders in the company’s annual report, but not to speak publically.
He was married and had three children.