- Bernard Arnault has made his daughter the CEO and chair of luxury fashion house Dior.
- Arnault, who is worth around $178 billion, is the CEO of LVMH.
Bernard Arnault, the world's richest person, has just given his daughter the top job at Dior.
Delphine Arnault, 47, who had been an executive vice president of Louis Vuitton since 2013, will be the CEO and chair of Christian Dior Couture from February 1, parent company LVMH announced on Wednesday.
Her 73-year-old father, who is LVMH's CEO, cofounded the luxury conglomerate in 1987 that also owns brands including Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Moët & Chandon, Fenty Beauty, and Tiffany & Co.
At Louis Vuitton, LVMH's biggest brand, Delphine was in charge of its product-related activities. She previously worked at Dior as its deputy managing director from 2001 to 2013. She replaces Pietro Beccari, who moves to run Louis Vuitton.
Bloomberg estimates Arnault's fortune at $178 billion, making him the world's richest person by some distance. He's worth about $50 billion more than Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Delphine Arnault's four brothers also work across LVMH and its brands. Antoine is CEO of Christian Dior SE, the holding company the family uses to control LVMH; Alexandre is an executive vice president at Tiffany & Co; Frédéric is the CEO of Tag Heuer; and Jean is the director of watches development and marketing at Louis Vuitton. Both Antoine and Delphine sit on LVMH's board of directors.
"The appointment of Delphine Arnault is another milestone in a career journey in fashion and leather goods defined by excellence, first during 12 years at Christian Dior and then at Louis Vuitton for the past decade where she was number two with responsibility for all of the Maison's product activities," Bernard Arnault said in a statement.
"Under her leadership, the desirability of Louis Vuitton products advanced significantly, enabling the brand to regularly set new sales records. Her keen insights and incomparable experience will be decisive assets in driving the ongoing development of Christian Dior," he added.
LVMH posted $56.5 billion in revenues in the first nine months of 2022 and doesn't separate financial information by brand.
Shares in the Paris-listed group were trading 1.6% higher on Wednesday, valuing the company at 386 billion euros ($414 billion).
Thomas Chauvet, analyst with Citi, told Reuters: "Succession planning in strategic roles has been instrumental to the success of LVMH's key brands over the past 20 years, hence today's moves are significant."
Correction: January 11, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated Delphine Arnault's age. She is 47.