BERNARD ARNAULT (A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY; France)

 BERNARD ARNAULT (A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY)

Bernard Arnault is a French businessman and investor who was born on 5 March 1949 in the Roubaix family in France. He is known as the CEO and Chairman of the world’s largest luxury products company named LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, a French conglomerate. Moreover, according to the billionaire list of Forbes, he is the third richest man in the world.

In addition, as indicated by Forbes, he is the most extravagant man in Europe and the fourth-most extravagant on the planet.

In Roubaix he attended Lycee Maxence Van Der Meersch and in Lille he attended the Faidherbe lycée. Then Mr. Arnault went to Paris and graduated in engineering from the France leading engineering school, Ecole Polytechnique.

In 1971, he started his professional career with his father’s civil engineering company named Ferret-Savinel Construction Company as an engineer. He persuaded his father after 5 years into the position to shift the company’s focal point to real estate by liquidating the industrial construction division. Besides, he renamed Ferret-Savinel to Ferinel Inc., and initially, a new company speciality holiday accommodations were developed under Ferinel.

In 1974, he was director of this company, and later on, he was successively promoted to several executive management positions. In 1977 he became the chief executive (CEO) of the company and in 1978 he became the chairman of this company. Later in 1979, Arnault succeeded his father as the company’s President.

Following the textile company acquisition and their headquarters relocation, the company renamed the branch of real estate to the George V Group. The assets of real estate were subsequently sold to Compagnie Generale des Eaux and eventually became Nexity.

In 1984, Arnault with Fifteen million dollars of his money together with a managing partner of financier Lazard Freres et Cie, Antoine Bernheim acquired Financiere Agache. In 1984 he became the CEO and take control of Boussac which was a bankrupt textile company that owned the Christian Dior fashion house & Le Bon Marche the department store. He employed the strategy of keeping the company’s focus solely on its world’s leading luxury products to bring the company back to profitability. Christian Dior was the cornerstone of Arnault’s holding this company, which he revived single-handedly. Then, in 1987 Henri Racamier, the chairman of LVMH invited Arnault. In 1989 Arnault became the major shareholder of Louis Vuitton and ousted Racamier in 1990. Since that date, Bernard Arnault has been CEO and Chairman of this company. Then, he began to sweep a large number of fashion companies into the fold of LVMH. In Europe, he was known as the man who rejuvenated French couture in 1995 by delegating John Galliano to swap the admired Hubert de Givenchy at the fashion house of Givenchy fashion house. After a year the "Pope of Fashion," as Arnault was named by Women's Wear daily, moved Galliano to Christian Dior and delegated Alexander McQueen to swap him at Givenchy. Later on, Arnault recruited a young American fashion designer Marc Jacobs to the creative director position at Louis Vuitton, and that year majority stake in Jacobs' eponymous line was acquired by LVMH. Albeit eventually all of the three designers left their posts but by the early 21st century the fashion foresight of Arnault had revitalized interest in these traditional fashion houses.

Bernard Arnault kept on acquiring luxury brands such as Fendi the Italian company in 2003, La Samaritaine a famous department store in France in 2010, Bulgari an Italian Jewelry brand in 2011, and Tiffany and Co. the classic American jeweller in 2021. Moreover, Arnault built the Foundation of Louis Vuitton in 2014, a Canadian American architect named Frank Gehry designed a modern art museum in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris. In 2007 Bernard Arnault was awarded France's highest distinctions named Commander of the Legion of Honor, probably.

Arnault also administrates his holding vehicles and further investments in addition to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. He is also the President of the Board of Directors of his family holding company (Groupe Arnault S.E). Groupe Arnault has done investments in Blue Capital, Boo.com and Netflix, and several other online ventures. Furthermore, he has also invested in buying Princess Yachts outright and acquiring a large share in the French food chain Carrefour.

Bernard Arnault, a French fashion tycoon is the richest person in the world with an estimated 198.9 billion dollars net worth fortune according to Forbes, placing him above fellows Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Arnault’s luxury group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy represented the significant rise of fashion houses and Europe’s luxury during lockdown that pushed his stake up by more than 600 million dollars. A similar surge in the sales of luxury goods of LVMH also occurred in parts of Asia and China.

Bernard Arnault in April 1999 became the richest person in fashion lagging Amancio Ortega. In the mid of 2005, Bernard Arnault with a fortune of 13 billion dollars was debuted among the top 10 while in the top five since 2018. In 2019, he became the 3rd richest person in the world. In January 2020 again he became the richest person in the world for a short time that also happened in August 2021 with a net worth of 198.4 billion dollars.

He continues to grow more and more successfully as the requirement for luxury products continues to surge in emergent markets such as Japan, China, and other Asian countries. Brands of Arnault continue to globally grow in prominence and his company continues to create such innovative goods that people truly find irresistible. Besides, with the LVMH’s profit surge Bernard Arnault has been listed as the third richest man in the world.

The most important ethos of Bernard Arnault’s enduring success is his sharp eye for quality and detail. Arnault additionally dominates as a result of perspective that allowed for him to spot value in failing business sectors and brands and his affection for luxury, which he states as a combination of innovation and quality. Arnault also puts a great deal of accentuation on investing in hidden value. Bernard Arnault is a visionary with a phenomenal ability to see value in (trends, products, companies) that is simply missed by others.

The journey of Bernard Arnault contains a lesson that our destinations are not determined by our beginnings. Besides, regardless of our education or lot in life, we can have a successful journey, where we can do extraordinary things by thriving and expanding outside of our expertise.

Bernard Arnault has been married twice. He has five children among which two from the first marriage and three from the second marriage. His four children Alexandre, Delphine, Frederic, and Antoine work within his business.

 

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