TOP 100 | LEADERS

Title: Chief Executive Officer Company: LVMH Industry: Luxury Goods

Nobody has ever monetised desire more efficiently. Bernard Arnault began with a provincial construction firm and a family loan, bought the bankrupt parent of Dior in 1984 and assembled LVMH into a 75-brand empire, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Moët among them, that turned Parisian taste into one of Europe’ s few genuine superpowers. A trained pianist with a chess player’ s patience, he still walks stores unannounced, terrifying shop managers and delighting shareholders, while five of his children hold posts across the group in history’ s most closely watched succession audition. Luxury’ s post-pandemic hangover has tested the model and China’ s slowdown has tested it harder, yet the wolf in cashmere retains what rivals lack, time horizons measured in decades and a collector’ s eye for brands that outlive economies. businesschief. com 91