Léone-Noëlle Meyer (born 8 November 1939) is a French heiress, pediatrician, businesswoman and philanthropist. The adoptive granddaughter of the founder of the Galeries Lafayette, she served as its chairman from 1998 to 2005. She was a pediatrician for 45 years. She has made humanitarian trips to South America, Africa and Asia, and she has supported Jewish causes and the Paris Opera. She was awarded the 2007 Medal of the Great Donor by the French Ministry of Culture for her philanthropy.
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Early life
Léone-Noëlle Meyer was born on 8 November 1939 in Paris. Her father was unknown; her mother was a seamstress. Both her mother and her grandmother were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942. She grew up in an orphanage in Rueil-Malmaison until 1946, when she was adopted by Yvonne Bader, the daughter of Théophile Bader, the founder of the Galeries Lafayette, and Raoul Meyer, who served as its chairman from 1944 to 1970. She grew up in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
Meyer earned a bachelor of laws in 1960 and graduated from Sciences Po in 1961. She earned a doctorate in medicine in 1972.