Bernard Arnault

Born in Roubaix in 1949 to a devoutly Catholic household, Arnault studied civil engineering at École Polytechnique and graduated in 1971. He started in his father's company, Ferret-Savinel, and steered it toward real estate. The pivot came in 1984 when he acquired the failing textile conglomerate Boussac Saint-Frères for one asset: Christian Dior. He gutted the rest, turned Dior around, and earned the nickname "The Terminator." In 1987 he engineered the merger of Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy, creating LVMH, then spent decades acquiring and folding in fashion houses, jewelers, watchmakers, and vineyards. The machine he built became the largest company by market cap in the eurozone. He tried to become a Belgian citizen once; the controversy passed, the empire didn't.