A solution for Bernard Arnault

Delphine will be chair of Agache Commandité and of the “Conseil de Surveillance”. She will play a leading role in the ownership structure and will retain her position as non-executive chair of Christian Dior Couture. She is already chair of the limited partnership and has the longest service record, both in terms of age and length of service with the company. Her background includes EDHEC and the LSE, McKinsey, and twenty years at Dior and Louis Vuitton; she has served on the board of directors and the executive committee of LVMH, and has extensive experience in other sophisticated governance structures, for example as a director at Ferrari and Havas. The move from Chief Executive Officer to Chair of Dior would not be a demotion: it is a shift from the sphere of management to that of ownership. This would introduce a further element of balance into the system, with a CEO in a supporting role and a chairperson in the lead. She will also need to play a permanent role as custodian of the group’s creative talent: this is a function she already fulfils, having created and presided over the group’s award for young designers for over a decade. As Bernard himself pointed out in his masterful letter of reply to *Le Monde*, in the luxury sector the scarce resource is not capital, but creative talent. It is, moreover, a role that no external manager could fulfil with the same legitimacy.

Antoine will be chairman of Christian Dior, the (newly formed) family council and the foundations. He will play a leading role at the heart of the entrepreneurial family. His background includes degrees from HEC and INSEAD, twenty-five years’ experience in branding, communications and sustainability, an operational presence within the group’s media arm, and non-executive chairmanships at Berluti, Loro Piana and Les Journées Particulières. He is the brother with the greatest network of relationships and reputation, and throughout his career he has shown less focus on day-to-day operations and financial results. He will be the guardian of the family’s identity, the point of contact with the government and the press, and responsible for patronage. He is also the only one who has already demonstrated the ability to speak on behalf of the entire family. He, too, will have a permanent role: institutional ambassador and guardian of the entrepreneurial spirit. What the family risks losing in the succession is not a person, but the very essence through which a maison is acquired, repositioned and grown. If it remains solely in the founder’s mind, it dies with his passing. Codifying and teaching this through the training programmes the group already has in place for management and artisan trades is a key task; it requires family authority, and it would be difficult for an external consultant or manager to do this in the family’s place. It is the difference between finding the best manager and ensuring an entrepreneurial vision for every generation. From 2030 onwards, and for an indefinite period, Antoine will hold the permanent role of institutional ambassador and guardian of the entrepreneurial spirit.

Alexandre will be Deputy Chief Executive, responsible for M&A and development. He will play a leading role in managing acquisitions. He is the only one with proven experience in extraordinary transactions: he acquired Rimowa at the age of twenty-four and led the company for four years; he managed the integration and repositioning of Tiffany following a $15.8 billion acquisition; since 2025, he has been Deputy Chief Executive of Moët Hennessy, where he led a restructuring involving a 13 per cent reduction in the workforce, in a division in which Diageo holds a 34 per cent stake. He will be entrusted with the art of deal-making, a trait that has always characterised Bernard and the entrepreneurial spirit of LVMH.

Jean, aged 28 and the youngest of the group, will have to prove himself in order to progress and still has a great deal to demonstrate; he could do so within the Montres & Joaillerie division (Tiffany & Co., Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Hublot, Zenith, Chaumet and Fred). In the future scenario outlined here, his role will be in management, with progressive advancement. His CV includes a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a degree in finance from Imperial College, training in watchmaking, and the building from scratch of Louis Vuitton’s haute horlogerie division; he could become a true master of the family’s craft, the only one with technical product expertise in the watches and jewellery sector (he would essentially be the one to ‘turn up to a meeting with a watch movement in his hand’, as Le Monde reports Bernard does today). He will need to develop his skills by tackling a profit and loss account, perhaps at a medium-sized maison for two to four years, then within a division. He will also take on the role of chair of the New Generations Committee within the family council: given his age and future standing, he is the one who, more than anyone else, will have a vested interest in being involved and will command credibility amongst the third generation.

This is the first proposal for continuity that familyandtrends would put forward to Bernard if asked; Arnault will certainly have better advisers. As the French entrepreneur said, LVMH’s legacy “is nurtured, protected and passed on”: it is entirely up to him to decide how.

Lecturer in Family Business Strategy – University of Turin – bernardo.bertoldi@unito.it