Written by Meet Bernard Arnault, whose full name is Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault. Arnault is a very rich man from France who owns a big company that makes luxury goods. He started the company and is still in charge of it today.
He also likes to collect art. He is the richest person in the world as of this year April 2023, with lots of money, worth over 200 billion dollars. His family is also very rich. Let’s read about his full biography and net worth below.
Bernard Arnault Biography
Bernard Arnault is a successful businessman from France. He was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix. He studied at École Polytechnique. Arnault is the founder of LVMH, a company that owns many luxury brands. He is also known for being the richest person in the world.
Arnault is the chairman and CEO of LVMH and the chairman of Christian Dior SE. He is an art collector and a media owner. Bernard has been married twice and has five children, including Delphine and Antoine Arnault. His daughter-in-law is Natalia Vodianova.
Age | Date of Birth
Bernard Arnault was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix, France. [1] As of March 5, 2022, he is 73 years old. He will turn 74 years old on March 5, 2023, and 75 years old on March 5, 2024.
Zodiac Sign | Ethnicity | Nationality
Bernard Arnault is a businessman, investor, and art collector from France. He was born in Roubaix, France on March 5, 1949, and he is French. Some sources say that he is a Pisces because he was born on March 5th. [2] [3]
Bernard Arnault Family
Bernard Arnault was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix, France. His mother was interested in fashion brand Dior, and his father owned a company called Ferret-Savinel, which worked in civil engineering.
Bernard Arnault attended two high schools in Roubaix and Lille before graduating from France’s top engineering school, École Polytechnique, in 1971. He then began working for his father’s company, Ferret-Savinel.
Wife | Children
Bernard Arnault married Anne Dewavrin in 1973 and they had two children, Delphine and Antoine. They separated in 1990. In 1991, Arnault married Hélène Mercier, and they have three children, Alexandre, Frédéric, and Jean.
All five children and his niece Stephanie Watine Arnault have roles in brands owned by Arnault. Alexandre is an executive vice president at Tiffany & Co, Frédéric is the CEO of TAG Heuer, and Jean is the Director of Marketing and Development at Louis Vuitton.
Delphine, Arnault’s daughter, is the CEO of Dior since February 2023. She is also the partner of Xavier Niel, a billionaire businessman in the telecommunications and technology industry. Arnault and his family live in Paris.
Art Collection
Bernard Arnault is not only a businessman but also an art collector. He has a collection of artworks by famous artists such as Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Yves Klein.
Arnault is also a patron of art in France, and he helped establish the LVMH Young Fashion Designer competition to support the creation of emerging fashion labels.
Arnault also used to own an art auction house, and he started a project to build the Louis Vuitton Foundation, a building dedicated to contemporary art designed by architect Frank Gehry. The Foundation opened in Paris in 2014.
Career
Arnault convinced his father to focus on real estate, leading to the sale of the industrial construction division and the renaming of the company to Ferinel.
The company later became the George V Group after acquiring a textile company and relocating its headquarters. The real estate branch was eventually sold to Compagnie Générale des Eaux and became Nexity.
1971–1987: Professional Start
Bernard Arnault started his career by working for his father’s construction company. He then went on to work for a real estate company and became the CEO in 1977. In the early 1980s, he began investing in different companies, including luxury fashion brands.
1987–1989: Co-Founding | Acquisition of Lvmh
In 1987, Arnault co-founded LVMH with the merger of two luxury goods companies. He then acquired many other luxury brands, such as Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton. This move made LVMH the world’s largest luxury goods company.
1989–2001: Lvmh Initial Expansion | Growth
During this time, LVMH continued to expand by acquiring more luxury brands, such as Fendi, Celine, and Loewe. They also entered the perfume and cosmetics market by acquiring Sephora. Arnault’s leadership helped LVMH become a major player in the luxury industry.
2001–present: Increasing Success | Profitability
In the early 2000s, LVMH continued to grow and expand into new markets, including Asia and the Middle East. They also acquired more luxury brands, such as Bulgari and Loro Piana. Under Arnault’s leadership, LVMH has continued to increase its success and profitability, becoming the largest luxury conglomerate in the world.
Net Worth | Wealth
Bernard Arnault is a very wealthy businessman from France. He is the founder of LVMH, a company that owns luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior.
He has been very successful and has been named the richest person in the world several times, with a net worth of over $200 billion.
He owns a large yacht and has previously owned a research vessel. Despite being very wealthy, he experienced a decline in his wealth during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a drop in sales of luxury goods.
Belgian Citizenship Request
In 2013, it was reported that Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, was planning to apply for Belgian citizenship and possibly leave France due to tax issues.
However, Arnault later clarified that he never intended to leave France and would continue to pay taxes in the country.
He withdrew his application for Belgian citizenship to avoid any misunderstanding that he was trying to evade taxes.
Arnault also stated that some of his employees wanted to leave France for tax reasons, but he declined their requests.
He believed that the proposed 75% tax on high earners in France would not generate much revenue and was not a good solution for the country’s economic challenges.
He suggested that the tax should be levied on companies rather than individuals and only be in place for two years.
Transport
In October 2022, Arnault announced that his company LVMH sold its private jet after a Twitter user tracked its flights. Instead, he now rents private aircraft for his personal and business trips. The sold aircraft was a Bombardier Global 7500 registered as F-GVMA.
Political Views
Arnault supported Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the 2017 French presidential election. Brigitte Macron, the wife of Emmanuel Macron, taught Arnault’s sons Frédéric and Jean when they were students at the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague.
Awards | Honours
Bernard Arnault has received several awards and honours throughout his career. He was appointed as the Grand Officier of the Légion d’Honneur in France in 2011 and was also named as the Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the UK in 2012.
In Italy, he was awarded the Grand Officer of the Order of Merit in 2006, and in Russia, he received the Medal of Pushkin in 2017. Arnault has also been recognized for his contributions to global corporate citizenship and the arts.
He received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship in 2011 and the Museum of Modern Art’s David Rockefeller Award in 2014.
Additionally, he is a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, an honour that recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the arts and literature.
LVMH CEO
What Is LVMH and How Did Arnault Become Its CEO? Bernard Arnault took over his father’s company in 1977 and became its president in 1979. [4] In 1981, he moved to the United States due to political changes in France.
While in the US, he grew his family’s property business and built condos in Florida. He became the CEO of Dior in 1985 and was later invited to invest in LVMH. [5]
Arnault invested through a joint venture with Guinness PLC and eventually gained control over 43.5% of LVMH’s shares in 1989, becoming chairman of the executive management board. [5]
Under Arnault’s leadership, LVMH became one of the largest luxury groups in the world. He spent a lot of money buying more shares in the company and led the company’s ambitious development plan.