François-Henri Pinault graduated from HEC School of Management in 1985. During his studies, he co-founded the CRM company Soft Computing with other 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 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 the retail sector, François-Henri Pinault became president of CFAO in 1993 and CEO of Fnac in 1997. In May 2003, François-Henri Pinault became vice-President of PPR and President of Groupe Artémis, PPR’s parent company.

From 2003 to 2014, PPR’s sales had dropped by more than a half, but its profits grew by 40%. From 2005 to 2017, the luxury revenues of the group rose from 3 to 10 billion euros. 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.

Since 2003, François-Henri Pinault is the President of Groupe Artémis, the parent company of Kering, and owner of the winery Château Latour, the auction house Christie’s, and the soccer team Stade Rennais F.C. (Ligue 1). Artémis also invested in the cruise ship operator Compagnie du Ponant in 2015.

In March 2005, François-Henri Pinault became the President and CEO of PPR and engaged its transformation into an international group focused on luxury fashion. He offloaded PPR’s leading retail assets (Conforama, CFAO, Printemps, Fnac and La Redoute) and merged PPR with the Gucci group, its subsidiary since 1999, bringing Gucci’s luxury portfolio (Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney) under his direct supervision. He expanded the group’s portfolio of luxury brands (Girard-Perregaux, Brioni, Qeelin, Pomellato, Christopher Kane, Tomas Maier, Ulysse Nardin), and in June 2013, he changed PPR’s name 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 April 2006, he started dating the actress Salma Hayek. Their daughter Valentina was born on September 21, 2007 and the couple got married on 14 February 2009 in Paris. In April 2009, they renewed their wedding vows in Venice.

François-Henri Pinault strongly committed his group to sustainable development. In the early 2010s, he implemented the “environmental profit and loss” (EP&L) accounting method, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, that was gradually applied to all the brands owned by the group. He launched the Kering Foundation in 2008 to support women’s rights, and the Women in Motion program with the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 to raise awareness around women-related issues in the film industry. 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. Francois-Henri Pinault was mandated by the French President Emmanuel Macron to set up the Fashion Pact during the G7 summit in August 2019, an initiative signed by 56 fashion firms committing to follow concrete measures to reduce their environmental impact.

Artémis also controls Pinault Collection. In 2016, François-Henri Pinault introduced the project to renovate the Bourse de Commerce building in Paris and turn it into a Pinault Collection-branded contemporary art museum. To foster Artémis’ investments in the technology sector, François-Henri Pinault launched the $100-million investment fund Red River West in 2017. In 2019, he celebrated the first Coupe de France victory of the Stade Rennais F.C. since its acquisition by the Pinault family in 1998.

In 2018, François-Henri Pinault confirmed Kering’s exit of the Sport & Lifestyle sector to focus solely on the Luxury sector.