President Donald J. Trump visits and speaks with workers, as he is joined by Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy; Carlos Sousa the general manager of Louis Vuitton Manufacturing USA, and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, during a tour Thursday, October 17, 2019, at the Louis Vuitton Workshop- Rochambeau in Alvarado, Texas. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
Bernard Arnault has built LVMH into a luxury empire spanning the globe. His efforts have made him one of the wealthiest men on earth, and his children are part of the family business. Alexandre Arnault is being elevated in the company’s ranks to a senior role in LVMH’s wines-and-spirits business. Stacy Meichtry and Nick Kostov of The Wall Street Journal suggest this could give the younger Arnault an advantage in one day succeeding his father. They write:
Alexandre Arnault, a son of LVMH MC 1.95%increase; green up pointing triangle Chairman Bernard Arnault, is stepping into a senior management role at the group’s vast wines-and-spirits business, a move that advances the 32-year-old executive’s position as a contender to one day succeed his father at the helm of the world’s largest luxury conglomerate.
The younger Arnault is slated to return to France as the deputy chief executive of the group’s Moët Hennessy division after spending three years in New York as the No. 2 executive at jeweler Tiffany & Co. He will become the first of the five Arnault children to hold a senior role in the wines-and-spirits business, a cornerstone of his father’s luxury empire.
Alexandre Arnault will report to Jean-Jacques Guiony, the former CFO of LVMH, who is also moving to the wines-and-spirits unit to become its CEO. The moves are part of a broader realignment across LVMH’s senior ranks that has replaced some of Bernard Arnault’s longest-serving lieutenants with younger executives.
Guiony is expected to work in tandem with Alexandre Arnault with the aim of eventually handing him the reins of the wines-and-spirits business, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“I’m excited to step into a new chapter,” the younger Arnault wrote on X, adding that he was “embracing this foundational part of our Group’s heritage.”
The move distinguishes Alexandre Arnault from the luxury titan’s other children, who have mainly worked in LVMH’s fashion-oriented businesses. It is also likely to rekindle chatter throughout the salons of Paris over who among 75-year-old Arnault’s children is best suited to succeed him.
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