John Rochon

John Rochon General Information

Biography

Mr. John Rochon is the Founder and serves as Chairman at Richmont Holdings. Mr. Rochon was the Founder and served as Vice Chairman at JRJR Networks. He has more than three and a half decades of wide-ranging success in finance, operations, business planning, sales, brand-building and marketing. He is a highly accomplished investor and business strategist. By the time he was 40 years old, Mr. Rochon was chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500 global consumer goods company, serving in that role for nearly a decade. His career has included more than 300 business transactions across various industries. Over the course of two decades, Mr. Rochon has assembled at Richmont a seasoned team of marketing-driven merchant bankers and industrialists. Richmont's extraordinary financial returns result from unique methods that distinguish its approach from that of more classical investors or traditional private equity firms. Richmont uses its own proprietary diagnostic system to build (in the case of turnarounds, to rebuild) the top line of a company. Using this unique methodology, which has been refined over many years, Richmont determines how consumers think about a company's equities and dis-equities. It then mathematically analyzes this information and crafts a plan to drive top line growth. Using patented decision-making measuring techniques, combined with integrative thinking, Richmont designs the framework to communicate with customers and targets to influence purchasing behavior. Mr. Rochon respects the role of leadership intuition when setting a strategic course. Nevertheless, Richmont's conclusions are built firmly upon quantitative data, not simply upon intuition. While deploying the standard PE techniques to improve cash generation, Richmont focuses on the "velocity of capital," ensuring that returns to investors are achieved early in the investment process, while still holding investments for a decade or more. The combination of these approaches has yielded remarkable success: compounded annual returns in excess over 27 years, generating a combined $37 billion of increased value for Richmont, its investment partners and co-investors. Mr. Rochon's career has included significant international operating experience, including the planning and execution of a major global expansion into 37 countries on five continents. His companies have done extensive business in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. He has been a leader in the global direct selling industry, guiding one of the world's major direct sellers, Mary Kay Inc., through a period of major expansion while in the same time period developing a blueprint for the revival and growth of Avon Products. Mr. Rochon's companies include a nationwide network of providers of imaging supplies and services to businesses. One of his major investments, Realpage Inc., a provider of services to large residential rental properties, recently conducted a successful initial public offering and has a market value in excess of $2 billion. He is an investor and member of the board of directors of Jameson Bank, a chartered Schedule I financial institution in Canada. He founded several investment funds, including a hedge fund, a fund of funds and a debt investment fund. Other ventures include Rochon Premium Brands, a line of high-end gourmet products including sustainable-farmed Siberian sturgeon caviar, 100% Arabica coffee, organic Canadian maple syrup and spring water produced on his family's land in Ontario. Mr. Rochon holds a B.Sc. and an MBA from the University of Toronto and began his career as a chemist before moving on to management positions in manufacturing, operations, marketing and finance. In his first career assignment, he was part of a turnaround team in support of Laura Secord, a division of Labatt's in Canada. He spent the early part of his career working for Chesebrough-Ponds (Unilever), where he was affiliated with such major brands as Prince Matchabelli, Q-Tips, Ragu, Vaseline and Prince tennis racquets. He later joined Ecolab International, one of the world's leading providers of cleaning, sanitizing and maintenance products and services. Mr. Rochon joined the direct selling cosmetics company Mary Kay Inc. in 1980. In 1984, he became chief financial officer, and subsequently became chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Rochon was the architect of Mary Kay's management-led leveraged buyout in 1985, arranging the financing and executing the transaction. That LBO is regarded as one of the most successful in business history. During the following 16 years, the company's retail revenue grew from $500 million to almost $3 billion and Mary Kay became the world's best-selling brand of skin care and color cosmetics. Mr. Rochon became vice chairman and chief financial officer in 1987 and chairman and CEO in 1991.