Who is Francois-Henri Pinault and How Much is He Worth?
| Full Name | Francois Henri Pinault |
| Date of Birth | |
| Profession | Entrepreneur |
| Height | N/A |
| Country | France |
| Source of Wealth | Inherited |
| Net Worth | $7 billion |
| Last Updated | December, 2024 |
Francois Henri Pinault is a French businessman who has a net worth of $7 billion. Francois Henri Pinault was born in Rennes, France in May 1962. Pinault is the chief executive officer of Kering.
Early Life
François-Henri Pinault is the son of François Pinault, the founder of Pinault SA, which later became Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, then PPR, and then Kering.
Pinault was married to Dorothée Lepère from 1996 to 2004. They had two children together, a son François in the year 1998 and a daughter Mathilde in the year 2001. He dated supermodel Linda Evangelista from September 2005 to January 2006. They had a son together, Augustin James Evangelista in October 2006.
In April 2006, he started dating the actress Salma Hayek. Their daughter Valentina was born on 21 September 2007. The couple got married on 14 February 2009 in Paris. In April 2009, they renewed their wedding vows in Venice.
Career
In 1987, Pinault began his career at PPR (then called Pinault Distribution) where he was promoted manager of the buying department in 1988, head manager of France Bois Industries in 1989, and head manager of Pinault Distribution in 1990.
In the 1990s, as Pinault Distribution became PPR, an international player in the retail sector, Pinault became president of CFAO in 1993 and CEO of Fnac in 1997. Pinault became vice-President of PPR and President of Groupe Artémis, PPR’s parent company in May 2003,.
He graduated from HEC School of Management in 1985 and served in the military in the French Consulate Economic Expansion station. Pinault started working at Kering in 1987 and in 1988 he was named manager of the buying department. He became head manager of France Bois industries in 1989 and of Pinault Distribution in 1990. Pinault became CEO of CFAO in 1993 and CEO of Fnac in 1997.
His father Francois Pinault gave Francois Henri the presidency of Artemis in 2003 and he became Chairman of the Board and CEO in 2005. He became president of Puma’s Executive Committee in 2007.
In March 2005, Pinault became the President and CEO of PPR and engaged its transformation into an international group focused on luxury fashion.
He offloaded PPR’s leading retail assets (Conforama, CFAO, Printemps, Fnac, and La Redoute) and merged PPR with the Gucci group, it’s subsidiary since 1999, bringing Gucci’s luxury portfolio (Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Alexander McQueen, and Stella McCartney) under his direct supervision.
He expanded the group’s portfolio of luxury brands (Girard-Perregaux, Brioni, Qeelin, Pomellato, Christopher Kane, Tomas Maier, Ulysse Nardin), and in June 2013, he changed PPR’s name to Kering. The new name is a reference to his Breton roots, “Ker” meaning “home” in the region’s dialect, and sounds like “caring”.
Pinault strongly committed his group to sustainable development. In the early 2010s, he implemented the “environmental profit and loss” (EP&L) accounting method, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, that was gradually applied to all the brands owned by the group.
He launched the Kering Foundation in 2008 to support women’s rights, and the Women in Motion program with the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 to raise awareness around women-related issues in the film industry.
In 2009, he financed the documentary Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, which shows aerial shots of various places on Earth and discusses how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet. In January 2018, Kering was named the top sustainable textile, apparel, and luxury goods corporation in the Corporate Knights Global 100 index.
Pinault was mandated by the French President Emmanuel Macron to set up the Fashion Pact during the G7 summit in August 2019, an initiative signed by 56 fashion firms committing to follow concrete measures to reduce their environmental impact.
From 2003 to 2014, PPR’s sales had dropped by more than a half, but its profits grew by 40%. From 2005 to 2017, the luxury revenues of the group rose from 3 to 10 billion euros. In 2018, as revenues grew 27% to 15.5 billion euros the year before, he announced his plan to outperform Louis Vuitton with Gucci over time.
In 2018, Pinault confirmed Kering’s exit of the Sport & Lifestyle sector to focus solely on the Luxury sector.
Awards
- 2006: Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
- 2016: Vanity Fair Hall of Fame
- 2018: #8 Businessperson of the Year by Fortune
- 2019: Among the “30 best CEO of the world” according to Barron’s
- 2019: 3rd of the “100 best CEOs worldwide” according to Harvard Business Review
- 2020: Fiorino d’Oro, the highest award of the city of Florence
François-Henri Pinault Net Worth and Earnings
François-Henri Pinault has an estimated net worth of $7.1 billion. The French businessman makes his money from his numerous chain of businesses. He is an heir from a wealthy family. His father who is also called François-Henri Pinault is a billionaire with a net worth of $54.9 billion.
Pinault oversees chains of businesses which include fashion brands Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Gucci. The family also owns the French Ligue 1 soccer club Stade Rennais FC, which they purchased in 1998.
Summary
Francois-Henri Pinault is a French businessman, the chairman and CEO of Kering since 2005, and president of Groupe Artémis since 2003. Under his leadership, the retail conglomerate PPR was transformed into the luxury fashion group Kering.
Pinault is the son of François Pinault (the founder of PPR). He has been married to Salma Hayek since 2009, with whom he has a daughter.
