Pierre Godé, Top Adviser to France’s Richest Man, Dies at 73 In 2013, following LVMH’s stealthy effort to build up a stake in the family-owned leather goods house Hermès — actions that turned into a bitter public battle — Mr. Godé became deputy chairman of LVMH’s Italian operations and stepped down as chief executive of Mr. Arnault’s investment companies, Groupe Arnault and Financière Agache. Arnault said that Alongside my father, Jean Arnault, and then alongside me, Pierre Godé was instrumental in the creation and growth of the LVMH Group, Mr. Godé and Mr. Arnault met in 1973, when Mr. Godé was the youngest qualified law professor in France and a lawyer to Mr. Arnault’s father, Jean, the head of a property company. 2, 2018 Pierre Godé, a French lawyer whose steely negotiation skills and strategic vision made him the éminence grise of the world’s largest luxury group, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has died in Nice, France. "He is my closest colleague as well as a confidant and friend without equal." Mr. Godé officially joined Mr. Arnault’s company in 1985, having assisted in a 1984 bid for Boussac, a bankrupt textile company that counted the Christian Dior fashion house among its assets. A loyal second-in-command and adviser trusted like no other — LVMH has become infamous for the fast-moving revolving doors at its many fashion houses — Mr. Godé later led the charge in some of the group’s most high-risk business dealings.
