François-Henry Pinault, a tycoon seeking help

Tycoons are neither all-powerful nor infallible. They depend on brilliant collaborators to help them perpetuate their fortunes. This inevitable exercise of modesty has been made by François-Henri Pinault, one of the richest men in France, owner of Kering, a luxury empire that includes brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta. The businessman announced a few days ago that he was resigning from his dual role as chairman and CEO. For this second position, the executive leadership, he has chosen Luca de Meo, until now the head of Renault—and former number one at Seat—an unexpected appointment that has caused a sensation and plunged the car company into depression and a certain degree of disarray.

Pinault's partial withdrawal is an attempt to relaunch Kering, which had a rather bleak 2024, with a 12% drop in revenue and a 62% drop in profits, causing its stock market value to plummet. The bet is that the skillful signing of De Meo, with his bold change of sector, will be successful. The Italian executive is an elegant man with a commercial flair and who has always displayed an almost emotional connection to his products. He already worked hard at Renault to promote the Alpine brand in the high-end segment, which bodes well.

Under the media spotlight for being rich and for his love affairs, Pinault is not forgiven even for traveling by helicopter.

François-Henri Pinault, 63, son of the group's patriarch, François Pinault, has long been in the spotlight not only in the financial press but also in the celebrity press, thanks to his marriage to actress Salma Hayek. He previously garnered attention for his brief relationship with model Linda Evangelista, with whom he had a son, only to be admitted at the mother's insistence.

His relationship with Hayek, with whom he has a daughter, Valentina Paloma, has lasted since 2006. As he explained in an interview with Paris Match , she "educated" him to be much more sensitive to the mistreatment of women and the violation of their rights. For this reason, the Kering Foundation dedicates enormous resources to combating this scourge. Among its most emblematic projects is the creation of the Saint-Denis Women's Home, in a northern suburb of Paris, one of the areas with the most social problems in France. This facility provides all kinds of support, in collaboration with a neighboring hospital, to women who need help due to domestic violence, sexual abuse, or simply helplessness due to their marginalized situation.

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Supporting women and promoting them professionally, both within Kering and in the cultural and other spheres, is not the only way the Pinault family maintains its image. In their philanthropic and patronage roles, the family, through their holding company Artémis, donated €100 million for the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire. The Pinault family's art collection was housed at the Paris Bourse, owned by the city council. Artémis funded the necessary restoration and adaptation. The Pinaults also own the first division football club Stade Rennais and wine estates.

As is almost inevitable for figures with such high net worth, François-Henri Pinault has also had his share of trouble with the tax authorities, both British and French, as he divides his time between London and Paris. The tycoon, always under the media spotlight, has been criticized even for his helicopter trips. The online publication Mediapart , which specializes in uncovering scandals, discovered in 2023 that François-Henri Pinault and another billionaire, Martin Bouygues, shared a helicopter, which they used for multiple, sometimes very short, trips. Mediapart went so far as to calculate that the CO2 emissions emitted by the helicopter in one year were equivalent to those of an average French person over 32 years. It's clear that tycoons don't have the power to safeguard their privacy or hide their sins, not even their environmental ones.