Yahoo Finance World’s richest man Bernard Arnault picks daughter Delphine to run Dior
LVMH boss Bernault Arnault has appointed his daughter Delphine Arnault to run luxury fashion brand Dior as the world’s richest man seeks to tighten his family’s grip over their sprawling retail empire in a Succession-style shakeup.
Bernault Arnault, who is worth £147 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, has appointed Delphine, 47 as Dior CEO in the place of Pietro Beccari, who has been promoted to run the conglomerate’s biggest brand, Louis Vuitton.
73-year-old Arnault has also extended the age at which the LVMH boss must retire to 80, indicating that he intends to stick around at the helm of the luxury empire for at least another few years yet.
He also appointed his son, Antoine Arnault, to replace Sidney Toledano as chief executive of family holding company, Christian Dior SE, in further signs the billionaire could be priming his children to take over from him at a future date.
LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury goods group, is listed on the Paris stock exchange with a market value of 387 billion euros (£343 billion). Founded in 1987, it counts Moet, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs and TAG Heuer among its brands and reported revenue of 64 billion euros in 2021.
Arnault began life working as a real estate developer in 1971, before acquiring the owner of the Christian Dior brand in 1984, building into the LVMH conglomerate after a string of luxury brand acquisitions.
Delphine, who until the appointment to Dior boss had been overseeing products at Louis Vuitton, is Arnault’s eldest child by Anne Dewavrin, his first wife whom he divorced in 1990.
All five of Arnault’s children are involved in the management of LVMH at senior levels.
