World's richest man Bernard Arnault auditions his 5 children over lunches to pick a successor: Report

Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton (LVMH) and the world's richest man, reportedly meets his five children once a month over lunch to decide who is capable of running his luxury empire.

The lunch is organised inside a private dining room in the company's global headquarters in Paris, a Wall Street Journal report said.

The purpose of the exactly 90-minute-long lunch is to discuss the business strategies related to his luxury business empire with his children and seek their opinion on these, unnamed sources familiar with the matter told WSJ.

The meal typically begins with the French billionaire reading the discussion topics prepared by him on his iPad. Arnault then goes around the table, asking each of his five adult children for advice.

The 74-year-old billionaire seeks an opinion on specific managers at the company or whether it's time for a shake-up at one of LVMH's myriad brands, the people revealed.

These monthly sessions are part of the decades-long plan to prepare his children, who will take over LVMH when he is no longer there, according to the report.

So far, Arnault has only said that his successor would be chosen on merit but has given no indication of who it might be.

Currently, all his children hold important positions within the luxury company.

Delphine, the eldest of his children and only daughter, was named the head of the second-largest brand in the empire Christian Dior. Her brother Antoine was given the position of managing the holding firm that oversees LVMH and the family's fortune. Frederic Arnault is the CEO of TAG Heuer and Alexandre Arnault is an executive at Tiffany and Jean Arnault, who is the youngest of the Arnault siblings, is in charge of marketing and product development for Louis Vuitton's watch department.

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