Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH.
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Bernard Arnault is the world’s third-richest person, with a net worth of $137 billion.
Arnault controls the massive luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton.
All of Arnault’s children work at LVMH brands, including Louis Vuitton, Berluti, and TAG Heuer.
When it comes to the world of luxury goods, perhaps no one is more successful than Bernard Arnault.
Arnault, the 72-year-old CEO of French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, has built his fortune over the span of almost four decades, amassing a luxury-goods empire that includes some of the best-known names in fashion, jewelry, and alcohol, including Louis Vuitton, TAG Heuer, and Dom Pérignon.
Along the way, Arnault has brought four of his five adult children into the fold, building a family-run business that has resulted in the world’s third-largest fortune.
Here’s how Arnault got his start and became one of the richest people in the world.
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Source: Bloomberg
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He studied engineering at one of France’s most prestigious schools, the École Polytechnique. After graduating, Arnault went to work for his father’s construction company, Ferret-Savinel.
Source: Bloomberg, Insider
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Agache-Willot-Boussac owned brands like French department store Bon Marché and the fashion house Christian Dior.
He renamed the firm Financière Agache and initiated a turnaround, cutting costs and selling off some of its businesses.
Source: Bloomberg
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Source: The New York Times
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He then set his sights on LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, spending $2.6 billion buying up shares in order to become the company’s largest shareholder, and eventually its chairman and CEO, by 1989.
Source: The New York Times
Reuters
Source: Financial Times, Forbes
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Source: Forbes
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He travels by private jet, owns a sprawling vacation villa in glitzy Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, and reportedly has also spent at least $96.4 million on residential properties in the Los Angeles area: in Beverly Hills, and in the Trousdale Estates and Hollywood Hills neighborhoods.
Source: Telegraph, The Real Deal
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Source: Bloomberg, The New York Times
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Source: Bloomberg
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Antoine and Delphine Arnault are his two children from his first marriage.
His youngest three — Alexandre, Frédéric, and Jean — are from his second marriage, to Mercier.
Source: The New York Times
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She started her career at American consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. in Paris and is now the executive vice president at Louis Vuitton.
In January 2019, Delphine became the youngest member of LVMH’s executive committee at age 43.
Source: Business of Fashion, The New York Times, MDS
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She now reportedly lives with tech billionaire Xavier Niel and has one daughter.
Delphine is notoriously private about her personal life. In a 2014 interview with the Financial Times, she said, “I’m quite discreet. I think I’d rather focus on my work.”
Source: Forbes, Insider, Financial Times
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In addition to those roles, Antoine was named head of communications and image for LVMH in June 2018.
Source: The New York Times, Business of Fashion
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The couple lives in Paris with their two children and Vodianova’s three children from a previous marriage.
Source: W Magazine
REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
LVMH acquired Tiffany & Co. in 2021, after which Alexandre became the company’s executive vice president of product and communications.
Prior to moving over to Tiffany, Alexandre was the CEO of Rimowa, a German luggage brand owned by LVMH.
Alexandre is longtime friends with Evan Spiegel, the chief executive of Snap. Spiegel told The New York Times that Alexandre is “a really creative guy” and that “he’s constantly thinking about the brand and how to express that.”
Source: The New York Times, Insider
Reuters
Frédéric joined LVMH as the temporary head of connected technologies at TAG Heuer in 2017. A year later, he became strategy and digital director at the Swiss watch company, LVMH’s largest watch brand. In 2020, Frédéric was named TAG Heuer’s CEO.
Frédéric graduated from his father’s alma mater, École Polytechnique in Paris, and interned at Facebook and consulting firm McKinsey before joining LVMH.
Source: The New York Times
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Jean Arnault became marketing and product director in Louis Vuitton’s watch division in August 2021.
Jean, who was 23 at the time, has a master’s degree in financial mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a master’s in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London, WWD reported.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he interned at Morgan Stanley and McLaren Racing and worked in a Louis Vuitton retail store before joining the company full-time.
Source: WWD
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The company opened a new 100,000-square-foot Louis Vuitton factory in Texas in 2019, the company’s third factory in the US. Trump attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the factory.
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Jobs once said to Arnault: “You know, Bernard, I don’t know if in 50 years my iPhone will still be a success but I can tell you, I’m sure everybody will still drink your Dom Pérignon.”
Source: CNBC
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Source: CNBC
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Source: The New York Times
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Source: LVMH
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“The death of this dear friend deeply saddens me, my wife and my children,” Arnault said in a statement upon Lagerfeld’s death in 2019. “We loved and admired him deeply. Fashion and culture has lost a great inspiration.”
Source: LVMH
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Kering owns brands including Gucci and Yves St. Laurent. The billionaire also owns Christie’s auction house.
LVMH originally tried to acquire a majority stake in Gucci in 1999, but Pinault ultimately snatched up the brand.
Source: Bloomberg, Forbes
Reuters
Source: The New York Times
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Source: The New York Times
REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
Source: Le Figaro
AP Images/Paul Sakuma
Source: Insider
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In January 2019, Arnault made $4.3 billion in a single day after LVMH shares surged 6.9%. And just six months later, on June 19, 2019, Arnault again made news when he became the third person in the world to reach a $100 billion net worth.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and pandemic-related shutdowns sank LVMH’s stock, sending Arnault’s personal net worth down more than $30 billion by May 2020.
But as the world opened up again, LVMH’s stock recovered, thanks to strong sales in fashion and leather goods and an uptick in alcohol sales, particularly Champagne.
It’s been a good year so far for the company: it recorded 36.7 billion euros in revenue in the first half of 2022, up 28% from the same period in 2021.
Source: Bloomberg, LVMH
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Source: Bloomberg
Marissa Perino and Taylor Nicole Rogers contributed to earlier versions of this story.