Know about Bernard Arnault, the third richest person in the world

We all know about Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg as the world's richest persons. But, how much you know about world's third richest man Bernard Arnault?

The 72 years old French businessman is the chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), the largest luxury-products company in the world.

Arnault became the third richest person in the world with a total net worth of $159 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The French fashion tycoon surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world for the first time in December 2019. He again became the world's richest person for a short time in January 2020 and the same happened in early August this year. But, he lost the position to Bezos again.

He has created some of the world-renowned luxury brands of fashion, jewelry, and alcohol, including Louis Vuitton, Dom Perignon, Fendi, and Kenzo.

Arnault was born on March 5, 1949, at Roubaix, France in the family of  Marie-Josèphe Savinel and Jean Léon Arnault. Arnault started his school at the Lycée Maxence Van Der Meersch in Roubaix, and the Lycée Faidherbe High School in Lille. Later he graduated from the École Polytechnique, country's leading engineering school in 1971.

After graduation, Arnault joined his father's civil engineering company, Ferret-Savinel and convinced his father to shift his focus to real state to expand the business.  After serving many important positions in the company, in 1978 he became the chairman of Ferret-Savinel.

At 1984, he won the bidding of the government's plan to reorganise Boussac Saint-Frères, a textile and retail conglomerate and there he saw the possibility of creating the world's largest luxury fashion goods company.

Christian Dior, a prestigious fashion brand owned by Boussac Saint-Frères and Arnault reinvigorated it along with Le Bon Marché department store.

In 1989, Arnault bought the majority share of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton merging two fashion companies. He became the CEO of the company.

In January 1989, he spent USD500 million to gain control of a total of 43.5% of LVMH's shares and 35% of its voting rights and became the chairman of the company.

He acquired several other companies over the 1990s, including the perfume firm Guerlain (1994), Loewe (1996), Marc Jacobs (1997), Sephora (1997), and Thomas Pink (1999) as a part of his ambitious expansion plan.

Arnault had surpassed Elon Musk when the company reported its first-quarter revenue of 14 euros billion in 2021. 

LVMH acquired American jeweler Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion, the biggest luxury brand acquisition according to Forbes.

Bernard Arnault now controls more than 70 brands including Louis Vuitton and Sephora. He has invested in internet streaming service Netflix and Blue Capital and has a major share in French food chain Carrefour.

Arnault has married twice. Helene Mercie, a pianist and his second wife has three children. He also had two children from the first marriage.

He has great taste in art. He collects arts and paintings of renowned artists and painter like Picasso, Yves Klein, Henry Moore and Andy Warhol.