Louis Vuitton CEO Bernard Arnault has now taken over the world's richest person title after Elon Musk's Tesla shares fell sharply on Monday.
Bernard Arnault is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive of LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world's largest luxury goods company
Arnault and his family have an estimated net worth of US$ 188.6 billion as of December 2022, according to Forbes.
He has 5 children from two marriages - all of whom currently work at the LVMH firm or one of its brands. Arnault's 2nd child Antoine recently got an expanded role at the holding company Christian Dior SE.
Born in Roubaix in the north of France in 1949, Bernard Arnault graduated from the elite engineering school École Polytechnique.
In 1984, Arnault returned to France and took over Boussac Saint-Freres - the bankrupt textile group that owned Christian Dior.
Later, he spun off most of the company’s other businesses and used the windfall to buy a controlling stake in LVMH - whose two main companies - Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy had merged
Arnault is also an art collector - which led to the opening of the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne in 2014.
The 73-year-old has long been a mainstay in wealth rankings, however, makes only rare public appearances and is not personally active on social media.