Born in
Bagnols-sur-Cèze on 19 April 1944, Richard's mother died when he was three years old. The grandson of a polytechnician, he attended the
École nationale de l'aviation civile from 1964 to 1966 and earned a degree in engineering. At the age of 25, Richard began working for the firm Bossard Consultant. He was later hired by
3 Suisses, which he led ten years later. In 1997,
LVMH appointed him manager of
Sephora, succeeding Dominique Mandonnaud. In 2001, he became director of development and innovation of the . He was elected CEO of
Nova Press in 2007, replacing
Jean-François Bizot, who had died. In 2009, Richard took over the clothing brand Souleiado with his son, Stéphane. In 2018, the two had a dispute and Stéphane sued his father. Daniel Richard was dismissed in 2020 in a decision made by a commercial court in
Tarascon and confirmed by the , which stated that he had displayed "behavior unsuitable for a manager".
Philanthropy In 2001, Richard succeeded
Luc Hoffmann as president of the
World Wide Fund for Nature - . He was succeeded by Claude Dumont in 2008. During his mandate, the brought together more than 80
NGOs for the
Grenelle Environnement in 2005. That same year, he launched a blood analysis campaign with volunteers in
Nîmes, though no results were published.
Politics In February 2009, Richard founded the environmental and citizens movement, Résistances, with Victor Hugo Espinoza. That year, he announced his candidacy for the
European election in
Île-de-France. In
2020, he announced his candidacy for the municipal council of Nîmes with support from
Europe Ecology – The Greens and the
Socialist Party, the
Radical Party of the Left,
La France Insoumise,
Ecology Generation, and
Cap21. He joined
Yvan Lachaud of
The Centrists in the party list, a move unpopular with voters, leading him to finish with only 18.62% of votes in the second round. ==Honors==