The lunches have been hailed as regular interviews to find the rightful heir, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a private dining room, where all discussions are formal, Arnault opens by reading agenda items from his iPad, then asks each child for advice.
His questions focus on core management decisions, such as whether to replace a brand’s chief executive, why a rival’s campaign appeals more to Gen Z, or whether the watch business needs restructuring, while he listens carefully to gauge each child’s strategic thinking.
Arnault, 76, reportedly imposed a strict upbringing, often calling his children into his office between meetings to work through math problems. The French billionaire entrepreneur and his family has a net worth of $194.4 billion as of Jan. 14, according to Forbes.
Sidney Toledano, a longtime associate of the family, said that after long-haul flights from Asia, Arnault would review math textbooks with his sons. He views logical thinking as essential to leadership in fashion and luxury.
Toledano said Arnault’s teaching style is largely influenced by Ecole Polytechnique, the elite engineering school he attended. While his two eldest children, Antoine and Delphine, did not study there, the three younger siblings later graduated from leading technical institutions, including Ecole Polytechnique and MIT.
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Luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault with his wife and five children. Photo by AFP |
Mentor-based training
Arnault assigns each child a senior executive within the group as a mentor.
Delphine Arnault, 51, his eldest daughter, spent 12 years under the guidance of senior leaders at Dior and Louis Vuitton. She is now chairman and CEO of Dior Couture. She has said her father could identify a future bestseller by selecting a single bag from hundreds during review meetings.
Antoine Arnault, 49, oversees brand image, communications and sustainability across the empire. He is also CEO of Christian Dior SE, the holding company that controls LVMH.
The three young sons from his second marriage also quickly rose through the ranks, The Times reported. Alexandre Arnault, 34, was recently appointed deputy CEO of the luxury wines and spirits brand Moët Hennessy. Frederic Arnault, 31, serves as CEO of high-end textiles and clothing company Loro Piana and executive director of Financiere Agache, the investment arm of the Arnault family. The youngest, Jean Arnault, 28, heads the watch division at Louis Vuitton.
“No-exit” ownership structure
To prevent the empire from falling apart after his death, Arnault created a special ownership structure among his children, inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No Exit,” where the main characters are locked in a room together for eternity as punishment.
Each of his five children holds 20% of the shares with a rule that for the next 30 years, no one can sell their stake without unanimous consent from the other four. Moreover, the chairmanship rotates among the siblings every two years.
So far, Arnault has not named a successor. He also amended the company by-laws to raise the chairman’s retirement age to 85, extending the succession race to 2034.
He forbids his children from competing with one another, even in hobbies like piano or tennis, to prevent conflicts within the family. “For now, they all get on great,” Toledano said.
The family’s situation has drawn comparisons to the television series Succession. Like the fictional patriarch Logan Roy, Arnault has retained control while pushing his children to prove their capabilities. Unlike the public conflict as portrayed in the show, the Arnault family’s rivalry plays out quietly under strict discipline.
