Inge Reist, director of the Center for the History of Collecting in America; Frick trustee Boker Doyle; Elizabeth Eveillard and Frick trustee Jean-Marie Eveillard at the preview of the 2009 IFAF in New York. Photo: Christine A. Butler
Background: Born in Poitiers, France in 1940, Mr. Eveillard is a graduate of Ecoles des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, an esteemed French graduate school for economic studies. He started his career in 1962 with Societe Generale, one of France's largest banks, until relocating to the United States in 1968. Two years later, Mr. Eveillard began as an analyst with the SoGen International Fund. In 1979, he was appointed as the portfolio manager of the SoGen International Fund, later named the First Eagle Global Fund. He then went on to manage the First Eagle Overseas and First Eagle Gold Funds at their inception in 1993 as well as the First Eagle U.S. Value Fund, which began in September 2001. Mr. Eveillard left his portfolio management duties on December 31, 2004 but continued to serve as Senior Vice President and Senior Adviser to the funds. Mr. Eveillard returned as Portfolio Manager on March 26, 2007.
Mr. Eveillard was named Morningstar's International Manager of the Year in 2001, and in 2003 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Morningstar for building one of the most successful long-term records in the investment business.
Through the Eveillard Family Charitable Trust, he and his wife Elizabeth have provided support to a wide ranging number of institutions in the arts, education, and social services. Recent grant and gift recipients include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, The Glimmerglass Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Salvation Army, Smith College, Tufts University, Harvard Business School, and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.