Laurent de Gourcuff

Laurent de Gourcuff (born 1976 or 1977) is a French businessman, the founder of the hospitality company Paris Society.

Early life and education The de Gourcuffs are a Breton noble family, originally from Plovan. Laurent de Gourcuff was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine; his parents ran restaurants and organised events. After hosting paying parties as a 16-year-old and admitting to cheating on his baccalauréat, he graduated from the European Business School Paris. and bought his first club, Les Planches, when he was 22. In 2008, he founded Groupe Noctis, which he expanded to include several restaurants and nightclubs in Paris, many in association with Gilles Malafosse. He was one of a new generation of nightculb and restaurant entrepreneurs in Paris that also included and Jean-Philippe Cartier. Despite having to sell several properties in the mid-2000s to pay €3 million in personal debts from a bad investment, he re-established his company holdings and diversified into event spaces and hosting. in 2021 this was increased to 40.8%. Noctis was subsequently renamed to Paris Society and became known for "eatertainment". It has also expanded outside France, including Raspoutine in Miami (a branch of the Paris cabaret restaurant ), Gigi in Dubai, Many of de Gourcuff's restaurants offer views from elevated vantage points. In 2019, he transformed the former L'Opéra restaurant at the Palais Garnier opera house into CoCo, a branch of which is scheduled to open in 2023 at the former Les Brotteaux station in Lyon. In 2021, Paris Society partnered with the new owner to transform the 17th-century at Belle Île into a luxury hotel. In the early 2020s Paris Society also extensively renovated the former Cistercian Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey. formerly a three-star hotel, into a multi-restaurant luxury hotel with interior design by Cordélia de Castellane.

By 2017, de Gourcuff's rivalry with Patou, chairman of Moma Group, had become contentious; the two agreed in 2019 to end the conflict. Beginning in February 2021, de Gourcuff and others were investigated in connection with the granting of a restaurant licence at Longchamp Racecourse; he was reportedly called in for further questioning in early December 2022. In November 2022, Accor announced its purchase of the outstanding stock in Paris Society, In March 2023, de Gourcuff announced that Paris Society had been chosen to operate Maxim's and planned an extensive renovation, which has been completed.

De Gourcuff and Paris Society were found guilty of corrupt dealings in connection with the Longchamp restaurant licence, and in February 2024 he was given a suspended sentence of two years in prison, fined €150,000, and barred from managing a business for five years. His lawyers announced that he would appeal.

In late 2024, de Gourcuff opened Baronne, a restaurant in the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris. In October 2025, he bought the Parisian restaurant Le Grand Véfour. In November 2025 it was announced that in advance of the first hearing on his appeal, he had reached an agreement with the courts under which in exchange for pleading guilty and paying a €1m fine, his suspended sentence was reduced to one year, the ban on his managing businesses was lifted, and his criminal record was expunged. In 2026, he partnered with Pierre-Antoine Capton and Xavier Niel to buy the Lily Wang, an Asian restaurant in Paris formerly owned by Niel.

Personal life De Gourcuff and his wife, Constance, He has a second residence in Eure. He is teetotal.