F rançois Pinault is a French luxury goods titan and the visionary founder of the luxury group Kering. A self-made billionaire who dropped out of high school, he started his business career in the 1960s with a small timber trading company. Through decades of shrewd and often ruthless deal-making, he built this into a major retail and distribution conglomerate, PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute).

In the late 1990s, in a move that would define his legacy, he pivoted his entire business towards high-end luxury. In a famous and bitter battle with his rival Bernard Arnault, he acquired a controlling stake in the Gucci Group. He has since built this into the global luxury powerhouse Kering, with a portfolio of iconic brands that includes Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Boucheron. He is also one of the world's most important contemporary art collectors, owning a vast collection that is displayed in his private museums in Venice, the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana. His son, François-Henri Pinault, now serves as the chairman and CEO of Kering.