Adorable Story #30: Gilbert de Botton

A Financier, Scholar, and Art Patron

“When you are really rich, people come to you”

— Gilbert de Botton

Financial pioneer Gilbert de Botton (1935 - 2000) in Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera, August 1977 — © Photo by Slim Aarons / Getty Images

Gilbert de Botton was a true titan of finance, culture, and intellect: a man who left an indelible mark on the worlds of finance, art, and thought.

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Gilbert de Botton was born on February 16, 1935 into a distinguished Sephardic Jewish family in Alexandria, Egypt: among his ancestors was the celebrated rabbinical scholar and Talmudist Abraham de Boton (who died between 1603 and 1609).

Gilbert’s mother, Yolande Harmer, was an Egyptian woman of Turkish-Jewish descends who became an Israeli intelligence officer operating in Egypt after WWII. She was recruited due to her connections in the Egyptian elite and royal circles and she has been described as “Israel’s Mata Hari”.

Yolande was at a time imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities.

Gilbert saw little of his father too, Jacques de Botton, who was an oil company representative and worked across the middle East while Gilbert was young.

After a few years into their marriage, Yolande and Jacques de Botton divorced and Gilbert was brought up largely by his mother’s parents.

Gilbert was educated at Victoria College, Alexandria, then graduated in economics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and finally took a master’s degree in economics at Columbia University, in the United States.

Gilbert showed an early passion for languages and throughout his life, following the itinerary typical of the jewish diaspora, became a formidable linguist, fluent in Arabic as well as all the major European languages (he eventually became fluent in 12 modern languages).

Having been born with Spanish nationality — the Jews of Alexandria enjoyed Spanish protection — Gilbert later also became a citizen of Switzerland.

In 1960, after getting his M.A. degree at the Columbia University, Gilbert returned to Switzerland and, with no family or other connections there, began his career with Ufitec S.A. Union Financiere, a relatively small Zurich-based finance house owned by Abdullah Zilhka, one of three brothers originally from Baghdad who all became prominent businessmen in Europe and the United States.