President of LVMH
Bernard Arnault, Jean Étienne (born March 5, 1949) is a French businessman and art collector. He has been the Chairman and CEO of LVMH since 1989. In March 2015, Forbes estimated his fortune at $37 billion, making him the fourteenth richest person in the world and the second richest in France.
His father, Jean Léon Arnault, was a manufacturer and owner of a civil engineering company, Ferret-Savinel. After graduating from Maxence Van Der Meersch High School in Roubaix, Bernard Arnault was admitted to the École Polytechnique (X1969), from which he graduated with an engineering degree in 1971.
After graduation, in 1971, he joined his father’s company. In 1976, he convinced his father to sell the construction division of the company for 40 million French francs, and to shift the company’s focus to real estate. Using the name Férinel, the new company specialized in holiday accommodation. Named development director of the company in 1974, he became CEO three years later. In 1979, he succeeded his father as chairman of the company.
In 1984, with the help of Antoine Bernheim, a partner at Lazard Frères et Cie., Arnault acquired Financière Agache, a luxury goods company. He became CEO of Financière Agache and thus took control of Boussac, a struggling textile company. Boussac owned Christian Dior, the department store Le Bon Marché, the retail chain Conforama, and the diaper brand Peaudouce. Bernard Arnault sold off almost all the assets of the company, keeping only the prestigious Christian Dior brand and Le Bon Marché.