François-Henri Pinault

He was married to Dorothée Lepère from 1996 to 2004. They together had two children - a son, Francois Pinault, born in 1998 and a daughter, Mathilde, born in 2001.

He started dating famous Mexican and American film actress and producer, Salma Hayek, in April 2006 and got engaged in March 2007 by which time Salma got pregnant with him. The two welcomed their daughter, Valentina Paloma, on September 21, 2007.

He tied the knot with Salma a couple of years later on February 14, 2009 in Sixth Arrondissement town hall in Paris.

François-Henri Pinault was born on May 28, 1962, in Rennes, France, to businessman, François Pinault and Louise Gautier.

Not much has come to shore about the early life and schooling of this enterprising personality except that he attended the prestigious international business school HEC School of Management, located in Paris, France, from where he completed his graduation in 1985.

François-Henri embarked into the world of business by co-founding ‘Soft Computing’ along with other fellow students.

He remained an intern of the American international IT major, ‘Hewlett-Packard’ in Paris in the capacity of a database software developer.

He then finished his military service in the French Consulate Economic Expansion station in Los Angeles, US, in the French Trade Bureau. This stint saw him studying fashion and new technology sectors.

He joined ‘Pinault-Printemps-Redoute’ (PPR) - at that time known as ‘Pinault Distribution’, in 1987. It was founded by his father, François Pinault, in 1963. In 1988, François-Henri was elevated as a Manager in the company’s buying department and in 1990 he became the Head Manager of the company.

Meanwhile he served France Bois Industries as Head Manager in 1989.

While ‘Pinault Distribution’ evolved as a global player in the retail industry in the 1990s (rechristened as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute - PPR), François-Henri was inducted as President of the multinational industrial products distribution company ‘Compagnie Française de l'Afrique Occidentale’ (CFAO) in 1993.

In 1997, he became the CEO of French retail chain company ‘Fnac’.

He led PPR to divest in retail industry concentrating more on managing luxury brands and eventually succeeded to evolve it into a leading player in the luxury goods industry.