- LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, 76, apparently believes he’s got another decade of good work ahead of him. The luxury conglomerate has proposed raising the maximum age of its chairman and CEO to 85, a change shareholders will vote on next month at the company’s annual meeting.
LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, 76, appears nowhere near ready to hang up his Louis Vuitton cap and retire.
The French luxury conglomerate has proposed raising the maximum age limit of its chairman and CEO to 85, according to company filings, which would allow Arnault to continue helming LVMH for nearly another decade. Shareholders will vote on the amendment to the company’s bylaws during its annual meeting on April 17.
Arnault, a part-time title-holder of world’s richest man, has a net worth of $179 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. As CEO of LVMH since 1989, Arnault’s 35-year tenure has expanded LVMH to oversee 75 brands—from Givenchy to TAG Heuer—across six divisions, and has seen the company endure a prolonged global luxury slowdown.
Nearing octogenarian status, Arnault has not yet named a successor, despite his five children holding senior roles within LVMH, including his Gen Z son Jean Arnault who runs Louis Vuitton’s watch division. Four of the Arnault children have seats on the company’s board. However, frequent leadership shuffles within the family have tilted the spotlight toward speculation over succession planning. Last month, Alexandre Arnault stepped into his role of deputy chief of the French LVMH’s eponymous spirits brand, Moët Hennessy. The shift will return the 32-year-old scion to the company’s Paris headquarters. LVMH continued its leadership swaps this week, appointing Frédéric Arnault, who currently leads LVMH’s watch division, to the head of Loro Piana, its Italian cashmere brand.
LVMH did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Just a number
LVMH seems to have no qualms in letting Arnault manage the company for as long as he sees fit. The company raised the age limit of its leadership from 75 to 80 in 2022. Warren Buffett, the 94-year-old investor and Berkshire Hathaway founder, even wrote a letter to Arnault following the rule change, arguing the changed retirement requirement was still too low, Bloomberg reported last year.
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Arnault’s workload has not appeared to lighten. He says he works 12-hour days, as of June 2024, adding he sometimes visits as many as 25 of his own stores on a given Saturday. He’ll also size up competitors by visiting other luxury shops.
“Every morning I have fun when I arrive [in the office],” Arnault told Bloomberg. The CEO begins his days around 8 a.m., spending his free time playing classical music on his Yamaha grand piano or playing tennis with the likes of superstar Roger Federer.
“He works 24 hours,” Delphine Arnault, the eldest Arnault child and CEO of Dior, told Forbes of her father in 2019. “When he sleeps, he’s dreaming of new ideas.”
