François-Henri Pinault

French businessman (born 1962)

Dorothée Lepère
​
​
(m. 1996; div. 2004)​
Salma Hayek
​
(m. 2009)​
Children4Parents

François-Henri Pinault (French: [pino]; born 28 May 1962[1]) is a French businessman, the son of self-made billionaire François Pinault. François-Henri took the reins of his father's retail conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute in 2005, and turned it into the luxury group Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta) in 2013. He has been president of the family-owned investment holding Groupe Artémis (Château Latour, Christie's, Pinault Collection, Creative Artists Agency) since 2003. He has been married to the film producer and actress Salma Hayek since 2009

Early life

François-Henri Pinault is the son of François Pinault, the founder of Pinault SA, which later became the retail conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) and then Kering.[2] He was born and raised in Rennes. He graduated from HEC School of Management in 1985. During his studies, he co-founded the CRM company Soft Computing with other fellow students and interned at Hewlett-Packard in Paris as a database-software developer. After graduating, he completed military service at the French Consulate in Los Angeles, and was in charge of studying fashion and new technology sectors.[3][4]

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.[5] In the 1990s, as Pinault Distribution became Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, an international player in the retail sector, Pinault became president of CFAO in 1993 and CEO of Fnac in 1997. In May 2003, Pinault became vice-president of PPR, and president of Groupe Artémis, PPR's parent company.[6]

In March 2005, Pinault was appointed President and CEO of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute.[6] The group had purchased Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent in 1999 and was going through a major overhaul of its organization and portfolio. Under Pinault's leadership, the group divested its retail assets (Conforama, CFAO, Printemps, Fnac, La Redoute), merged PPR with the Gucci group (Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Alexander McQueen) in 2011,[7] and then further expanded its portfolio of luxury brands (Brioni, Qeelin, Pomellato, Ulysse Nardin, Creed, Valentino).[6] After changing PPR's name to Kering[Notes 1] in June 2013 to conclude the group's transformation,[8][9] Pinault stopped acquiring luxury houses to focus on brand development and organic growth.[10] Kering's major fashion houses went through a growth cycle that took each of their revenue beyond the billion dollar mark ($10 billion for Gucci alone). The group launched the eyewear manufacturing arm Kering Eyewear in 2013 which also passed the billion dollar mark in revenue after ten years in the running.[11] Kering's revenue stalled around $20 billion in 2023, "a trying year" according to Pinault.[12][13]

In the early 2010s, he implemented the "environmental profit and loss" (EP&L) accounting method that was gradually applied to all the brands owned by the group.[14] He launched the Kering Foundation in 2008 to support women's rights,[15] and the Women in Motion program with the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 to raise awareness around women-related issues in the film industry.[16] 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.[17] In January 2018, Kering was named top sustainable textile, apparel and luxury goods corporation in the Corporate Knights Global 100 index.[18] 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 reduce their environmental impact.[19][20]

Since 2003, Pinault has been the president of Groupe Artémis[6] which owns Kering (majority shareholder), wines (Château Latour, Clos de Tart, Champagne Jacquesson), the auction house Christie's, news magazine Le Point and publishing house Tallandier, cruise operator Compagnie du Ponant,[21] fashion brands (Courrèges, Giambattista Valli) and the football team Stade Rennais F.C. (Ligue 1). In 2019, Pinault celebrated the first Coupe de France victory of the Stade Rennais F.C. since its acquisition by his family in 1998.[22] Artémis also controls Pinault Collection which operates three contemporary art museums in Europe. Through Artémis, the Pinault family donated $113 million to repair Notre-Dame de Paris after the 2019 fire.[23][24] In 2023, through Artémis, Pinault led the acquisition of a majority stake in the talent sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for an estimated $7 billion, "a deal that shows the ever-growing convergence of fashion and fame" according to The New York Times.[25]

Main roles

Awards and honours

Wealth

In 2023, the French magazine Challenges estimated the wealth of the Pinault family at 31.2 billion euros.[31] In 2024, Forbes' estimation was at 25.7 billion dollars.[32]

Private life

Pinault was married to Dorothée Lepère from 1996 to 2004. They had two children together, son François (b. 1998) and daughter Mathilde (b. 2001).[33] He dated supermodel Linda Evangelista from September 2005 to January 2006. They had a son together, Augustin James Evangelista (b. October 2006).[34][35]

In April 2006, he started dating actress Salma Hayek. Their daughter Valentina was born on 21 September 2007.[36] The couple got married on 14 February 2009 in Paris. In April 2009, they renewed their wedding vows in Venice.[34][37]

In 2024, his son François Louis Nicolas Pinault was named director of Christie's.[38]

Notes

  1. ^ The new name is a reference to his Breton roots, "Ker" meaning "home" in the region's dialect, and sounds like "caring"

References

  1. ^ "I married a film star but she's not my only luxury". The Sunday Times. 19 February 2012. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021.
  2. ^ Dyan Machan, The French Enlightenment, Barron's, 20 April 2013.
  3. ^ "François-Henri Pinault (PPR) : le nouvel empire". Journaldunet.com (in French). 7 December 2000. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  4. ^ a b Joe Einhorn (5 August 2012). "Meet Le Geek: Francois-Henri Pinault". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  5. ^ "Biography". Kering.com. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d Peter Gumbel (2 September 2009). "The new king of luxury". Fortune.com. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  7. ^ Rachel Sanderson, Pinault takes Gucci helm in PPR overhaul, Financial Times, 17 February 2011.
  8. ^ "François-Henri Pinault's Luxury Group PPR Changes Name to Kering". Pusuitist.com. 22 March 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  9. ^ Molly Fischer (2 April 2015). "Flyby". Newyorker.com. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  10. ^ Muret, Dominique (13 February 2020). "François-Henri Pinault says Kering not currently envisaging new acquisitions". FashionNetwork.com. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  11. ^ Zargani, Luisa (9 February 2024). "Kering Eyewear 2023 Sales Reach 1.5B Euros". WWD. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  12. ^ Danziger, Pamela N. (31 October 2023). "Trouble In The House Of Gucci: Kering Struggles To Revive The Brand's Sparkle". Forbes. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  13. ^ Guilbault, Laure (8 February 2024). "As Kering's sales slide, François-Henri Pinault talks elevation strategy". Vogue Business. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  14. ^ Elizabeth Paton (25 January 2017). "François-Henri Pinault, Kering Chief, on Why Green Is the New Black". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  15. ^ a b "Vanity Fair Nominates François-Henri Pinault to Its Hall of Fame". Vanityfair.com. December 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  16. ^ Tatiana Siegel (5 December 2015). "Cannes Fashion Partner Francois-Henri Pinault on His Festival Strategy and Why the Red Carpet Matters". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  17. ^ "Information about the movie - Home - Un film de Yann Arthus-Bertrand". Homethemovie.org. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  18. ^ Lorelei Marfil (23 January 2018). "Kering Named Most Sustainable Global Corporation". Wwd.com. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  19. ^ Emily Farra (16 May 2019). "At the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Kering's François-Henri Pinault Shares a Radical New Vision of Sustainability". Vogue.com. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  20. ^ Guilbault, Laure & Kent, Sarah, Kering Chief to Present Industry Sustainability Pact to G7, Business of Fashion, 23 August 2019.
  21. ^ Doug Gollan (4 January 2018). "How The Billionaire Owner Of Gucci And Brioni Wants To Make Expedition Cruises Fashionable". Forbes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  22. ^ (fr) David Hernandez, Rennes : Cette victoire, c'est surtout celle de la famille Pinault, Foot365, 28 April 2019.
  23. ^ "Incendie à Notre-Dame : la famille Pinault débloque 100 millions d'euros". Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  24. ^ O'Kane, Caitlin (16 April 2019). "Several of the world's richest French billionaires donate more than $500 million to rebuild Notre Dame". CBS News. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  25. ^ Hirsch, Lauren; Friedman, Vanessa (7 September 2023). "Head of Luxury Goods Maker Kering Buys Majority Stake in Talent Agency CAA". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  26. ^ "Décret du 14 avril 2006 portant promotion et nomination". Journal officiel de la République française (in French). 16 April 2006. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  27. ^ "8: François-Henri Pinault". Fortune.com. 2018. Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  28. ^ Hough, Jack, Mark Zuckerberg, Jamie Dimon, and Other Best CEOs in the World, Barron's, 17 June 2019.
  29. ^ (fr) 12 Français parmi les 100 meilleurs P-DG du monde, HBR, 21 October 2019.
  30. ^ Carrera, Martino, François-Henri Pinault Honored by Florence's Municipality, WWD, 7 January 2020.
  31. ^ "François Pinault et sa famille - Les 500 plus grandes fortunes de France". Challenges (in French). 4 July 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  32. ^ "François Pinault & family". Forbes. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  33. ^ Noé, Cristina, Meet Salma Hayek's stepdaughter, influencer Mathilde Pinault, Hola!, 3 March 2020.
  34. ^ a b Amanda Mitchell, François-Henri Pinault, Salma Hayek's Husband, Is Behind Some of Fashion's Biggest Names, The Oprah Magazine, 17 July 2019.
  35. ^ "Salma Hayek's Husband, François-Henri Pinault, Is the Father of Linda Evangelista's Son". People. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  36. ^ "Salma Hayek Has a Baby Girl". People. 22 September 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  37. ^ Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger (27 April 2009). "Star-Ledger article on remarriage in Venice". Nj.com. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  38. ^ Klasa, Adrienne (4 April 2024). "François Pinault's grandson, 26, replaces him on Christie's board". www.ft.com. Retrieved 13 June 2024.

External links

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