LVMH boss Arnault makes daughter Delphine Arnault Dior boss

Paris Bernard Arnault and his daughter Delphine Arnault get along very well. This can be observed at the Paris fashion shows. The 47-year-old French woman often accompanies her 73-year-old father to the shows of his luxury group LVMH (Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton), which owns 75 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior and champagne Moët & Chandon.

Arnault is now making his daughter Dior boss and is continuing to arrange his successor. The LVMH Group announced on Wednesday that Delphine Arnault will head Dior. Arnault is not only the boss, but also a co-owner of LVMH. His family holds around 47 percent of the company. According to Forbes, Arnault recently became the richest man in the world ahead of Tesla boss Elon Musk.

With the appointment of his daughter, the eldest of his five children, Arnault further solidifies the family’s position. Arnault had previously appointed his eldest son Antoine (45) as head of the family holding company. Delphine’s predecessor, Pietro Beccari, becomes head of Louis Vuitton. Two women are now in charge at Dior, Arnault and Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has been with the company since 2016 and is the first woman to hold the position.

Delphine Arnault has been on the board of Louis Vuitton since 2003, vice president since 2013 and previously worked for Dior for twelve years, most recently as vice president. She knows the brand very well and is considered experienced in corporate circles. “The appointments are a sign of trust and a will to respect a balance between outside personalities and members of the Arnault family,” Arnaud Cadart, portfolio manager at wealth manager Flornoy, told French media.

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Delphine Arnault has a degree from the renowned business school EDHEC and the London School of Economics, she was also a consultant at McKinsey. She is enterprising like her father, who has increased his fortune more than sixfold in ten years with luxury brands.

If my father ran a tire company, I don’t know what I would have done. Delphine Arnault, new Dior boss

Her father raves about her: “The appointment of Delphine means continuity of excellence in fashion and leather goods.” She set records at Louis Vuitton. “Her keen eye and unparalleled experience are important assets in the further development of Christian Dior.”

The new “Miss Dior” has a discreet charm, tends to pull the strings in the background and sticks to the French motto: “To live happily, you live hidden.” She prefers to concentrate on her work and only talks when she’s doing something have to say, Delphine Arnault once explained. She loves fashion and is happy that her father is in the luxury sector: “If my father ran a tire company, I don’t know what I would have done.” Besides fashion, she is interested in art, which is also one of her father’s passions.

>> Also read: Bernard Arnault is now the richest person in the world

Delphine has been dating tech billionaire Xavier Niel since 2010, with whom she has a 10-year-old daughter. She is also a good acquaintance of President Emmanuel Macron, whose wife Brigitte swears by the Louis Vuitton brand.

At the last Louis Vuitton Fashion Week in October, Charlene from Monaco appeared as a guest and sat in the front row next to Bernard Arnault. Now Delphine has to attract celebrities to Dior. But that shouldn’t be difficult, the brand has had loyal followers who have been promoting it for years. Among them are Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Kate Moss and Marion Cotillard.

Dior, a once dusty brand, was revived by her father and is now the heart of the group. As early as 1984, Arnault bought the ailing textile group Boussac Saint-Frères, to which Dior belonged. This is how the luxury business began. Louis Vuitton and Dior are now considered strategically important for growth. The fashion and leather goods division accounts for nearly half of LVMH’s sales, which does not disclose individual brand financial results.

However, Arnault has not yet found a successor plan for the entire group. This also includes Tiffany, Givenchy, Bulgari or Fendi. For years he has installed his five children at LVMH to carry on his work. Delphine and Antoine are from his first marriage, and he has three sons from his second marriage to the pianist Hélène Mercier-Arnault. They also have positions in the company.

Alexandre (30) is head of the jewelry brand Tiffany, Frédéric (28) at the watch company TAG Heuer. Jean (24) directs marketing and product development for the watch division of Louis Vuitton. Arnault still has some time, he wants to remain boss until his 80th birthday.

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