Bernard Arnault Full Q&A Oxford Union (YouTube screen capture)
The wealthiest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, is now worth more than $200 billion. No, the richest person is not Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or even Jeff Bezos, but someone who came out of the fashion industry. Forbes now lists Bernard Arnault as the wealthiest man in the world with a net worth of an estimated $211 billion. Arnault co-founded the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury empire in 1987 and Forbes says he added $53 billion to his wealth in the past year alone.
Elon Musk dropped down to number two on the Forbes list after losing part of his fortune with last year’s ill-fated acquisition of Twitter. And Amazon founder Jeff Bezos came in at number three.
Bernard Arnault is Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading luxury products group. His personal wealth increased by more than $110 billion in a little over a year’s time, going from $76 billion in March 2020 to $186.3 this May. His LVMH, which also owns household names like Fendi, Christian Dior and Givenchy, saw an unprecedented rise in its stock price during the Covid 19 crisis.
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According to his official company bio, Bernard Arnault was born to an industrial family in Roubaix, France on March 5, 1949, Mr. Arnault attended the Roubaix lycée and the Faidherbe lycée in Lille. He then went on to study at the Ecole Polytechnique.
He began his professional career that year as an engineer with the Ferret-Savinel construction company and successively was promoted to various executive management positions before becoming Chairman in 1978.
Bernard Arnault remained there until 1984, when he undertook the reorganization of the Financière Agache holding company. He returned the group to profitability as he embarked upon a strategy of developing the world’s leading luxury products company. In the process, he reinvigorated Christian Dior as the cornerstone of the new organization.
In 1989, Bernard Arnault became the majority shareholder of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, creating the world’s leading luxury products group. Mr. Arnault has been Chairman and CEO of the company since that date.
