NOVEMBER 30, 20 19LVMH debuted with Rihanna in May, will meet
with similar success. “She brings a different vi-
sion of fashion,” Arnault says. “For the future, it’s
very good for us to be connected to Millennials.”T
o keep his brands modern, he also
looks to his five children from two
marriages, four of whom work at
LVMH: Delphine, 44; Antoine,
42; Alexandre, 27; and Frédéric,- His youngest child, Jean, 21, will likely join
the company when he finishes school, according
to Alexandre.
Shortly after he started as strategy and digi-
tal director at the Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer
13 months ago, Frédéric Arnault pitched an idea
to his father over dinner. To enhance the brand’s
smartwatch for golfers, he wanted to acquire a
French startup, FunGolf, that had built an app
with detailed terrain data on 39,000 courses.
Players could use it to measure how far they were
from sand traps or greens. “The people in the
M&A department thought I was crazy,” he says.
But once he made the case to his father, says Fré-
déric, “He said, ‘Go for it.’”
Alexandre Arnault says Bernard was quick to
green-light tech deals Alexandre spearheaded at
the family investment vehicle, Groupe Arnault,
including bets on Spotify, Slack, Airbnb, Uber
and Lyft. Then, in 2016, he persuaded LVMH CLOCKWISEFROMTOP^ LEFT:^ KARL^ LAGERFELD,^ MAZENSAGGAR,^ KARL^ LAGERFELD,^JEAN- FR
ANÇOIS^ROBERTFORBES.COM66
PROFILE—BERNARDARNAULTEn Famille
Four of Arnault’s
five children work in
corners of the LVMH
empire. Clockwise
from top left:
Alexandre, Antoine,
Frédéric and Delphine.