LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, who turned 77 on Thursday, appears nowhere near ready to hang up his Louis Vuitton cap and retire. Under the updated bylaws of the French luxury conglomerate, he doesn’t have to for nearly a decade.
According to company filings, the chair of LVMH’s board of directors may serve until age 85, at which point their term expires. Shareholders approved the amendment to the company’s bylaws during its annual meeting in April 2025. The company raised the age limit of its leadership from 75 to 80 in 2022.
Arnault, who has previously held the title of the world’s richest man, has a net worth of $168 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. As CEO of LVMH since 1989, Arnault’s 37-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.
Succession plan question marks
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, Antoine Arnault, 48, who oversees the conglomerate’s image, communication, and sustainability, was promoted to LVMH’s executive committee. He joined Delphine Arnault, chair and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, as the only two siblings on the committee.
However, LVMH investors have reportedly begun to raise concerns about who will helm the luxury giant after Arnault’s tenure is up. By comparison to Arnault, the average age of a Fortune 500 CEO as of 2022 was 57 years old.
“The succession planning, as of now, appears unclear and opaque,” Stefan Bauknecht, equity portfolio manager at Deutsche Bank’s DWS, told Reuters in January. “We want more transparency and a plan on how things will evolve.” Per LSEG data, DWS is LVMH’s 12th-largest shareholder.
Still, Arnault recently said he has not zeroed in on who will replace him as head of the luxury group, and doesn’t plan to for a while.
“Talk to me again in 10 years, I can give you a more precise answer,” he told CNBC in December 2025. “As in every family, at one point, there is a succession, but I hope that, unless I get the ball on the head in a tennis court, I will make these 10 years.”
LVMH did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Arnault‘s daily routine
Others in Arnault’s orbit have previously signaled the CEO is able and willing to continue as top brass of LVMH. Warren Buffett, the 95-year-old investor and Berkshire Hathaway founder, even wrote a letter to Arnault following the 2022 rule change, arguing the changed retirement requirement was still too low, Bloomberg reported last year. (Buffett himself only stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025.)
Arnault’s workload has not seemed 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.”
A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on March 13, 2025.
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