Meet François-Henri Pinault, the billionaire who's married to Salma Hayek and runs the luxury-goods empire that owns Gucci and Balenciaga (2024)

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François-Henri Pinault was born on May 28, 1962, the middle child of François Pinault, who was then the CEO of a timber trading firm.

Source: Business of Fashion, Le Monde, Insider

The younger Pinault attended HEC Paris, a prestigious business school, before joining the family business in 1987. By then, the elder Pinault had amassed a timber empire, mainly through acquisitions of smaller firms. François-Henri was named manager of the firm's buying department one year after joining the company.

Source: Business of Fashion, Insider

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Pinault spent much of the 1990s and early 2000s working at subsidiaries of the family business, then called PPR. But everything changed in 2003, when his father abruptly stepped down and placed him at the helm of Artémis, the holding company controlling PPR.

Source: T Magazine

"It was funny and dramatic and surreal," Pinault told The New York Times' T Magazine when describing taking over the company. "I knew it was coming, but I never expected it to happen so fast. I was still only 40 years old, and my father was 66 and in great shape, full of plans for PPR. But he had seen too many omnipotent fathers and what they did. I saw how hard this was for him."

Source: T Magazine

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By then, PPR owned a slew of luxury fashion and jewelry houses: Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Yves Saint Laurent, and Gucci. The latter brand came under PPR ownership following a contentious legal battle between the elder Pinault and his chief business rival: Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, the world's biggest luxury conglomerate.

Source: T Magazine, Insider

Despite those fashionable names, the company was ailing. Over the next decade or so, Pinault worked to reshape PPR into a luxury and sportswear conglomerate by jettisoning some of the unsexy branches of the business — wood trading and electrical distribution — and selling off its retail operations, including a department store brand and a mail-order business.

Source: The New York Times, Business of Fashion, T Magazine

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In 2013, PPR solidified the gradual shift in its identity by changing its name to Kering. "Ker" was meant to reflect the company's roots in France's Brittany region ("Ker" means home in the Breton language), while "ing" was intended to conjure up movement, Pinault told The Wall Street Journal at the time.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

It wasn't totally smooth sailing, however. In 2007, Pinault bought German sportswear brand Puma, followed by skate and surf company Volcom in 2011. The brands were intended to serve as building blocks for a lifestyle division for Kering, but by 2013, even Pinault said he was "not satisfied" with Puma's performance. Kering later sold both companies.

Source: T Magazine, Bloomberg,

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Still, Pinault prefers to be hands-off when it comes to the products designed by Kering's various fashion houses. "It's not my job to say, 'That handbag doesn't work,'" he told T Magazine in 2013.

Source: T Magazine

That extends to the style preferences of his wife, the actress Salma Hayek, who is "very precise in what she likes and doesn't like," a company executive once told T Magazine. "But François has never called me up saying, 'Salma told me ...'"

Source: T Magazine

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Hayek and Pinault were set up on a date in 2006 by Mimma Viglezio, a former executive at Gucci. But before the date happened, even Hayek got confused by Pinault's similarly named father. "She said, 'What do you mean? I'm not going out with some 70-year-old guy. She thought she was supposed to go out with his father," Viglezio told T Magazine.

Source: T Magazine

The couple welcomed their daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, in September 2007.

Source: People

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Pinault and Hayek married on Valentine's Day in 2009 in a courthouse ceremony that was a surprise even to Hayek. "I didn't even know I was getting married that day," she recently told Glamour. "They just took me to the court. My parents, my brother, they were all ganging up on me. I had a phobia of the marriage thing."

Source: Glamour

Hayek told Glamour that it was only after the ceremony that she realized getting married was "kind of exciting," which prompted her new husband to ask if they could have a real celebration — two months later, the couple hosted a wedding in Venice, Italy.

Source: Glamour

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The weekend kicked off with a masked ball, and Vogue editor Anna Wintour, U2 frontman Bono, and actresses Penelope Cruz and Charlize Theron were among the 150 guests in attendance. Hayek wore a Balenciaga wedding gown and their daughter, Valentina, served as the flower girl.

Source: Today

In 2012, supermodel Linda Evangelista filed suit against Pinault, asking for child support for their son, Augustin, who was born in 2006. Evangelista had never before revealed who her son's father was, but said in the legal filings that he was born following a four-month relationship with Pinault. The case went to trial, and the two sides later settled.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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Pinault also has two children — François and Mathilde — with his first wife, Dorothée Lepère. He and Lepère divorced in 2005.

Source: T Magazine

Pinault and Hayek have owned a collection of homes over the years, including a mansion on Paris' Left Bank, a ranch near Washington's Mount Rainier, a Hollywood Hills Cottage, a Bel Air estate, and a home in London.

Source: T Magazine, Dirt

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In a 2022 interview on "The Ellen Show," Hayek said the family's London home seemed haunted, which her daughter backed up on air. "A lot of other people in the house have seen it," Hayek told DeGeneres. "My husband thinks it's absolutely nonsense."

Pinault currently chairs the Kering Foundation, which aims to combat violence against women. And in 2019, when the Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire, Pinault announced that the family would donate 100 million euros, then about $109 million, to help repair the iconic landmark. The Pinaults were among several of France's richest people to pledge millions in funds for the repairs.

Source: Kering, Insider

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In 2021, Pinault announced that he would end Kering's use of fur beginning with the autumn 2022 collections. "The world has changed, along with our clients, and luxury needs to adapt," he told the Evening Standard at the time.

Source: Evening Standard

While the luxury sector has seen strong sales over the past few years, even amid record inflation, there were signs the industry had begun to cool during Kering's most recent quarterly earnings. Sales fell at Gucci in the fourth quarter, while Balenciaga took a major reputational hit around the holidays. Still, Pinault remains confident: "We are not at all in a transition year," he told reporters. "We are not slowing down."

Source: Vogue Business, Insider

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While Pinault's net worth isn't broken out from his father's wealth, it's safe to say the family fortune is among the world's largest; according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, the elder Pinault is worth $41.1 billion, ranking 31st in the world.

Source: Bloomberg