Marie Besnier Beauvalot Net Worth

Marie Besnier Beauvalot has an estimated net worth of $8.5 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Marie Besnier Beauvalot profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $5 billion in 2019.

Marie Besnier Beauvalot is a French heiress and a major shareholder of Lactalis, the dairy group based in Laval in western France. She inherited the company with her brothers in 2000. Today, she holds an estimated 21% stake. She does not run daily operations, but she sits on the supervisory board. Her older brother Emmanuel is CEO and majority shareholder, while the family business remains centered on dairy products.

Her wealth comes from Lactalis, a company her grandfather started in 1933. The business grew into Europe’s biggest dairy producer and sells $30 billion of products, including President brie, Milkmaid yogurts and Valbreso Feta. That scale is the main reason she became widely known in business rankings. She also works as a designer, but her public profile is tied mainly to her ownership in Lactalis and the company’s international reach.

How Marie Besnier Beauvalot makes money

Marie Besnier Beauvalot’s fortune is tied to her ownership in Lactalis. Forbes says she owns an estimated 21% of the French dairy giant. She inherited the business with her brothers in 2000, after her father’s era leading the company. While she has no operating role in the firm, she is part of the ownership structure and serves on the supervisory board, which keeps her closely linked to the company’s direction.

Lactalis is the engine behind that wealth. The company was founded in 1933 and is based in the family’s hometown of Laval. It sells $30 billion of products across well-known dairy brands such as President brie, Milkmaid yogurts and Valbreso Feta. Forbes places the company in Food & Beverage and notes that Lactalis continues to expand internationally, including in China and Southeast Asia, helping support the value of the family’s stake.

Forbes net worth over time

Forbes valued Marie Besnier Beauvalot at $5 billion on the World’s Billionaires list in 2019. That figure moved to $8.2 billion in 2022, showing how much the value of her Lactalis stake had climbed over that period. Because her wealth is concentrated in a large private dairy company, changes in the Forbes estimate largely track how that ownership stake is assessed rather than a broad mix of separate businesses.

More recently, Forbes put her at $9.9 billion on the 2026 World’s Billionaires list. On Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker, the current estimate was $8.5 billion as of October 20, 2026. The shift fits the way billionaire estimates can move over time, while the core story stays the same: her wealth comes from a large inherited holding in Lactalis, a dairy producer with international sales and continued expansion outside France.