World’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, appoints his daughter to lead Dior

The richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, has chosen his daughter Delphine to lead Christian Dior, his LVMH luxury goods empire’s second-largest brand. 

The organization, which owns some high-end companies like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Givenchy, Kering, and Moet Hennessy, is led by 73-year-old Arnault, who also serves as Group Chairman.

As part of a restructuring of the €382 billion (£337 billion) business empire, he announced on Wednesday that his eldest daughter would take the helm of Dior. 

The appointment: Starting from February 1, Delphine Arnault, who currently serves as Louis Vuitton’s Executive Vice President, will assume the new role. 

After spending two years at McKinsey’s management consulting firm and pursuing a degree at the London School of Economics, the 47-year-old joined the family business in 2000. In 2003, she became the first woman and youngest member of the LVMH board. 

Her father spoke proudly of her leadership qualities, assuring her that she will bring a lot of these qualities to her new role.

• “Under Delphine’s leadership, the desirability of Louis Vuitton products advanced significantly, enabling the brand to regularly set new sales records.
• ’’Her keen insights and incomparable experience will be decisive assets in driving the ongoing development of Christian Dior.” 

More on her career growth: In 2001, Delphine started working for the company as a shoe designer before progressing to deputy general manager and collaborating closely with John Galliano, Dior’s then-creative director. With this job, Delphine has returned to the company. 

• The impact of Galliano’s racist and antisemitic outbursts at patrons in a Paris bar in 2011 that resulted in his dismissal and conviction for racism and antisemitism was said to have been minimized thanks to her. 
• Arnault has said she was not heavily exposed to the family’s brands or extreme wealth as a child but remembers getting a brown Louis Vuitton Noé bag (now retailing at £1,160) on her 18th birthday and attending the first lavish party when she was 21. 
• “I remember very well the 100-year ceremony, in 1996. There was a big party and at the top of the room was Naomi Campbell arriving on stage on a giraffe,” she told the Financial Times in 2014. 

Other appointments by Arnault: The holding company that owns 41% of the capital and 56% of the voting rights in the LVMH group, Christian Dior SE, named Bernard Arnault’s son Antoine as chairman and chief executive last month. 

• The French company currently employs all five of its children in senior roles. They might need to wait a while before taking over the family business because LVMH last year altered the company’s regulations to allow a chief executive to lead the business until the age of 80, up from the previous limit of 75. 
• According to the Bloomberg billionaire index, Bernard Arnault surpassed Elon Musk last month to claim the title of the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $178 billion.