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Biography
François-Henri Pinault ([pino]; born (1962-05-28)28 May 1962) is a French businessman, the chairman and CEO of Kering since 2005, and President of Groupe Artémis since 2003. Under his leadership, Kering divested the retail industry and became a luxury group.
Biography
Education, early career
François-Henri Pinault is the son of François Pinault, the founder of Pinault S.A., which later became Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, then PPR, and then Kering. François-Henri Pinault graduated from HEC School of Management (1985). During his studies, he cofounded the still-existingCRM company Soft Computing with fellow students, and did an internship at Hewlett-Packard in Paris as a database-software developer. After graduating, he completed military service in the French Consulate in Los Angeles, and was in charge of studying fashion and new technology sectors.
In 1987 François-Henri Pinault began his career at PPR (then called Pinault Distribution) where he was promoted to become 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 retailing, François-Henri Pinault became president of CFAO in 1993 and CEO of Fnac in 1997.
Turning PPR into Kering
In May 2003, François-Henri Pinault became vice-president of PPR and president chairman of Artemis, the holding company that controls the assets of the Pinault family. In March 2005, he became chairman and CEO of PPR.
At the helms of the group, he grew concerned about PPR's close ties to the European market and its eclectic set of numerous businesses. Looking for high-growth segments, he oriented the group towards fashion and luxury. He sold PPR’s leading retail assets: Conforama, CFAO, Printemps, Fnac and La Redoute. PPR then merged with the Gucci group, its subsidiary since 1999. The brands Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney were now under the direct supervision of PPR’s executives. The group expanded its portfolio of luxury brands with the acquisition of Swiss watchmaker Girard-Perregaux (2011),Italian tailor Brioni (2011), Hong Kong jeweler Qeelin (2012), Italian jeweler Pomellato (2013), British brand Christopher Kane (2013), German designer Tomas Maier, Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin (2014). Kering also developed a sports & lifestyle division with the acquisition of Puma (2007) and Volcom (2011). He made sustainability a pillar of the company by introducing new solutions to dramatically reduce the pollution of the luxury and textile industry.
From 2003 to 2014, the sales recorded by PPR had dropped by more than a half, but its profits had grew by 40%. From 2005 to 2017, the luxury revenues of the group rose from 3 to 10 billion euros.
In June 2013, François-Henri Pinault changed the group’s name from PPR to Kering. The new name is a reference to his Breton roots, "Ker" meaning "home" in the region’s dialect, and sounds like "caring". 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, François-Henri Pinault confirmed Kering’s exit of the Sport & Lifestyle sector to focus solely on the Luxury sector.
Main roles
- President and CEO of Kering
- Manager of Financière Pinault
- President of Groupe Artémis
- Co-founder and member of the board of Soft Computing
- Founder of the Electronic Business Group (2000)
- Owner of Stade Rennais, a French Ligue 1 football club
- Member of the management board of Château Latour
- Member of the board of Christie’s
Commitments
In 2008, François-Henri Pinault created the Kering Foundation to defend and promote women’s rights. In 2015, Kering launched the Women in Motion program with the Cannes Film Festival to raise gender issues within the film industry.
François-Henri Pinault is a member of The B Team, a pro-environment not-for-profit organization founded by Richard Branson. 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 top sustainable textile, apparel and luxury goods corporation in the Corporate Knights Global 100 index.
In June 2016, alongside his father François Pinault, he introduced the renovation project of the Bourse de Commerce building in Paris which will house part of the Pinault family’s art collection.
Through the family holding Artémis, he also invested in the cruise ship operator Compagnie du Ponant in 2015 and the tech investment firm Red River West in 2017.
After the Notre-Dame de Paris fire, Pinault committed 100 million euros to the rebuilding of the partially destroyed French cathedral.
In May 2019, François-Henri Pinault was designated by French president Emmanuel Macron to create a coalition of fashion companies dedicated to grown sustainable models for the industry. Pinault stated that competition within the industry obstructed the rollout of global sustainable solutions.
Awards
- 2006: Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur
- 2015: GCC Global Leaders of Change Awards
- 2015: ADL (Anti-Defamation League) International Leadership Award for setting a standard in corporate responsibility and raise awareness about discrimination against women and other minorities.
- 2016: Vanity Fair Hall of Fame
- 2018: #4 in Best Performing CEOs in the World by Harvard Business Review
- 2018: #8 Businessperson of the Year by Fortune
Personal life
François-Henri Pinault was married to Dorothée Lepère from 1996 to 2004, and they had two children together, a son François (b. 1999) and a daughter Mathilde (b. 2001).
François-Henri Pinault dated supermodel Linda Evangelista from September 2005 to January 2006, and they had a child together, Augustin James Evangelista, born October 2006.
In April 2006, he began dating the actress Salma Hayek. In March 2007, it was reported that Hayek was pregnant, and later that month the couple was engaged. Their daughter Valentina was born on 21 September 2007. They married on 14 February 2009 in Paris, in the Sixth Arrondissement town hall. Two months later, on 25 April 2009, they renewed their wedding vows in the presence of their family and friends in Venice.
François-Henri Pinault is a regular participant, together with his wife, to the investment bank Allen & Co.'s annual weeklong conference organized every year in Sun Valley, Idaho.