Last Friday, French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault briefly toppled Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world. Now relegated back to second wealthiest in the world, Arnault remains the richest person in Europe, reports FRANCE 24.
Arnault lasted just a couple of days at the top before Bezos recovered his regular position. But this was the second time in recent months that Arnault has borrowed the crown.
2019 was a good year for Arnault. The CEO of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) earned an estimated profit of 35.1 billion euros over the course of the year. This breaks down as 4,020,307 euros every hour, or 66,700 euros a minute. He is one of only three people ever to make it into the exclusive centi-billionaires club, along with Bezos and Bill Gates.
Arnault first dethroned Bezos on December 16, 2019. This triumph lasted even shorter, less than five hours, before Bezos returned to the top. It occurred after LVMH acquired luxury jewelry company Tiffany, causing their stocks to rise.
Arnault’s story is not exactly rags-to-riches, but it does reveal a man driven by ambition who built his own empire.
He was born Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault on March 5th, 1949 in the French city of Roubaix, near the Belgian border.
His father Jean Léon Arnault was a manufacturer and the owner of the civil engineering company, Ferret-Savinel.
His mother Marie Josèphe Savinel made two major contributions to her son’s future. She made him take piano lessons and she had a “fascination for Dior”, according to her son in an interview with The Financial Times, who said she wore its Diorissimo scent. She could not have known that her son would eventually own Dior.
Arnault still plays the piano, which remains one of his major hobbies, along with tennis. Indeed, the piano played a central role in his second marriage. He is said to have wooed Canadian concert pianist Hélène Mercier with his own performance of etudes by composer Chopin.
He graduated in 1971 from the École Polytechnique, France’s most prestigious engineering school whose alumni include three Nobel laureates, Carlos Ghosn and former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Having qualified as an engineer, he joined his father's company.
He married his first wife Anne Dewavrin in 1973 and they had two children, a daughter Delphine and a son Antoine. Delphine is widely considered to be her father’s natural successor and is currently executive vice president of Louis Vuitton.
Arnault proved his business acumen in 1976 when he persuaded his father to sell off the construction side of the business and focus instead on real estate. Arnault succeeded his father as president of this new company called Ferinel, specialising in holiday accommodation.