Louis -Marc Servien

 Dr. Louis-Marc Servien, Comte de Boisdauphin, Lord of Quendon, is president and managing director of several finance, import-export and real-estate companies in Switzerland, Europe and the Far East. He is also a state-licensed finance broker and real-estate agent. As a financier, he has specialized in the setting-up and administration of off-shore companies worldwide.

    The son of a banker and notary public, Dr. Servien was born in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, on 8 January 1934. His great-grandfather, the scion of a well-known family of French winegrowers, had come from France around 1865. In 1892 he acquired the “bourgeoisie” of Montagny-sur-Yverdon, thus becoming a “true Swiss” gentleman-farmer and wine-importer. Dr. Servien's grandfather, a well-known politician in Canton Vaud, was elected president of the Grand Conseil Vaudois in 1924. His mother was the grand daughter of Jules-Samuel Jequier who, in1902, founded the Fleurier Watch Co, a highly reputed name in the Swiss watch industry.

Unfortunately, Dr. Servien's father was a philanderer who spent most of the family fortune on women. He excluded his wife and son entirely from his will; they even lost the family home, an ancient manor house, and its valuable contents (Federal Court/TF/5C.81/2003). The will was subsequently contested and the situation redressed somewhat, but Dr. Servien is basically a self-made man who, thanks to business ability, built his own fortune from scrap.

    Dr. Servien attended the Universities of Lausanne, Switzerland and Cologne, Germany, as well as London City College in England. He received the degrees of Master in Law and Master in Economics & Commercial Sciences (HEC) from the University of Lausanne and a Dr. Acc. from the Accademia Tiberina in Rome (Italy). In 1984, Dr. Servien married Bruna Gollini († 1998).    

     The most important of the companies of which Dr. Servien is currently president and managing director is the Société de Financement (Genève) SA in Geneva. Dr. Servien is also a well-known society journalist and, as such, is executive president of Who's Who International SA, and France-Prestige-Promotion, two Swiss-based press services, whose main aims are to provide international coverage on fashionable society events occurring in Geneva, St. Moritz, London, Paris, Rome and Monte-Carlo. He is also president of the Committee of European Excellence, C.E.E.,®Ltd. As president and managing director of the Compagnie des Grands Crus SA, Dr. Servien promotes quality wines and spirits worldwide under the brandname “Comte de Boisdauphin”, his ancestral name. His family coat of arms is “D'azur à trois bandes d'or, au chef aussi d'azur chargé d'un lion issant d'or. L'écu surmonté d'une couronne de Comte” in the 1884 edition of Annuaire de la Noblesse de France.

    A prolific writer on economic and finance matters, Dr. Servien is the author of Les Fonds de Placement Collectif en Suisse, Investment Trusts (NBDJ, Lausanne, 1958, 228 pp.); “Le Régime Fiscal des Fonds de Placement Collectif en Suisse”(Steuer Revue, Bern, Nos. Jan. & Feb. 1959); Les Sociétés d'Investissement ou Fonds de Placement: Nouvelle Formule d'Epargne (Ed. Léman, Montreux, 1962, 200 pp.); “Le Fisc et l'Investment Trust ou Quelques Réflexions à propos du XVIe Congrès de l'IFA, Athènes 1962” (Steuer Revue, May 1963); “Los Fondos de Inversion Colectiva o Investment Trusts” (Información Comercial Española, Madrid, Aug. 1963); “Die Boersenkotierung der Anteilscheine von Anlagefonds, La Cotation en Bourse des Certificats d'Investment Trusts, La Quotazione in Borsa dei Certificati di Fondi di Investimenti Immobiliari” (Management Report, 1963, of the HISA Investment Fund, Zurich 1964); “Proposte Normative per la Disciplina dei Fondi d'Investimento in Svizzera” (Investimenti & Prospettive, Milan, March 1964); Les Fonds de Placement Collectif en Suisse (memorandum prepared for the Ist International Congress on Mutual Funds, Barcelona, Spain, 1964); I Fondi Comuni di Investimento: Una Nuova Forma di Risparmio (Casa Editrice Cerastico, Milan 1967, 198 pp.), Investment Trusts: Moderne Kapitalanlage (ABC Verlag Zürich, 1968, 162 pp.), Mutual Funds, Why Not? A Survey of International Investment Funds (Ed. Léman, Montreux, 1968, 180 pp.); “Quelques Réflexions à Propos du Nouveau Statut Juridique des Fonds de Placement Suisses” (Revue de la Banque, Bruxelles, No. 7, 1969); Fondos de Inversion, Una Nueva Formula de Ahorro (Ed. Deusto, Bilbao, Spain, 1970, 215 pp.); “Fondi di Investimento in Svizzera” (Tribuna d'Europa [Europa CEE], Rome, Italy, Aug. 1972); “Gibraltar: Tax on the Rock” (Premier, Monte-Carlo [Monaco], No. 17, 1985-86);“Or nazi : conférence internationale à Londres” (La Chronique Judiciaire d'Haïti, Haïti, Jan. 1998); “Fonds en deshérence et banques suisses : sommet historique à New York” (La Chronique Judiciaire d’Haïti, Haïti, Feb. 1998 );“Conférence internationale sur l’or nazi” (Revue Indépendante, Paris, May 1998, No. 264) ; “Arabité et Francophonie” (La Chronique Judiciaire d’Haïti, Haïti, April. 1998 ) ; “Hong-Kong 1998: 1er Festival des Vins et Spiritueux ”( La Chronique Judiciaire d’Haïti, Haïti, August. 1998 ) ; etc.

    In 1969 Dr. Servien was awarded a Gold Medal from the Accademia Tiberina in Rome and, in 1980, the Gold Medal of Arts, Sciences et Lettres, Paris, for his numerous books and articles on economics. He currently holds membership in the International Tax Planning Association (Sevenoaks, Kent), the Manorial Society of Great Britain (London), the Club Diplomatique de Genève, and the Chow-Chow Club of Paris, France. He is also Honorary Colonel of the Confederate Air Force, Midland, Texas. In honor of his numerous merits and achievements Dr. Servien was made a Commendatore of the Concordia Order, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1974 and, in 1992, Commendador de la Imperial Orden Hispãnica de Carlos V in Madrid, Spain. During 2006 the INTERNATIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of Cambridge has awarded two important diplomas to Dr. Servien for his interest in all forms of Art.