Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault is a French businessman, investor, and an art collector with a net worth of $158 billion. Arnault is the chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. He is the richest person in France and the fourth richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. Bernard Arnault is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods corporation.

Mr. Arnault was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix, France to a wealthy industrial family. He attended the Roubaix lycée and the Faidherbe lycée in Lille. He then went on to the Ecole Polytechnique to further his studies.

Arnault began his career working for his father’s manufacturing company. Five years into the position, he persuaded his father to leave the housing development division and enter the real estate market. Under the name Férinel, the new organization at first created stellar event facilities. Named a director of the company in 1974, he became chief executive in 1977. In 1979, he succeeded his father as president of the company.

In 1984, Arnault purchased Financière Agache with the assistance of Antoine Bernheim, a senior partner of financier Lazard Frères et Cie, and took ownership of Boussac, a beleaguered textile business that owned, among other things, Christian Dior and the department store Le Bon Marché. With the purchase as a step into the luxury industry, Arnault worked hard and set out to create the world's largest luxury conglomerate.

LVMH's value grew fifteenfold over the next 11 years. One of the key factors in the company’s success has been Arnault’s program of decentralization and his efforts to highlight each brand’s heritage so that each company is viewed as a separate entity. He beat the owner of  Zara, Amancio Ortega, to become the richest person in fashion in April 2018. In December 2019, Arnault briefly overtook Jeff Bezos as the world's richest man. In January 2020, he briefly regained the title of the world's richest person.

Berluti and Kenzo were acquired by LVMH in 1993. In the same year, Arnault purchased La Tribune, a French economic newspaper, which he later sold before reinvesting in the newspaper industry by purchasing Les Echos. Over the next several years, Arnault earned the nickname "a wolf in cashmere" by acquiring Givenchy, Guerlain, Marc Jacobs, Sephora, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Loro Piana, Nicholas Kirkwood, Thomas Pink, R.M Williams, EDUN, and Donna Karen, as well as a several of jewelry labels including TAG Heuer, De Beers, and Bulgari, among many others.

In addition to LVMH, Arnault is in charge of a handful of other investment and holding firms. Groupe Arnault has made significant investments in Netflix and Blue Capital, as well as a large interest in Carrefour, a French retail chain. He's also purchased Princess Yachts outright and invested in Boo.com and a number of other online ventures.

He married Anne Dewavrin in 1973, and the couple had two daughters, Delphine and Antoine. They divorced in 1990. He then married Canadian concert pianist Hélène Mercier in 1991, and the couple has three children. They are based in Paris. Delphine, Antoine, Alexandre, and Frédéric, as well as his niece Stephanie Watine Arnault, all have official positions in Arnault's brands. As of 2010, Bernard Arnault has become the father-in-law of Xavier Niel, a French billionaire businessman who is the partner of his daughter Delphine and works in telecommunications and technology.

Arnault was the owner of the Amadeus, a 70 m (230 ft) converted research vessel that was sold in late 2015. Symphony, his latest yacht, is 101.5 meters (333 feet) long and was designed by Feadship in the Netherlands. Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres are honorary titles presented on him.

Bernard Arnault’s net worth makes him one of the richest people in the world behind people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Helu.

SOURCES: Forbes, LVMH, BusinessOfFashion, Networthbro

This article was updated on March 12, 2021 by Vanessa Shumbanhete

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