François-Henri took the reins of his father's retail conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute in 2005, and turned it into the luxury group Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta) in 2013.

He has been president of the family-owned investment holding Groupe Artémis (Château Latour, Christie's, Pinault Collection, Creative Artists Agency) since 2003.

During his studies, he co-founded the CRM company Soft Computing with other fellow students and interned at Hewlett-Packard in Paris as a database-software developer.

After graduating, he completed military service at the French Consulate in Los Angeles, and was in charge of studying fashion and new technology sectors.

Under Pinault's leadership, the group divested its retail assets (Conforama, CFAO, Printemps, Fnac, La Redoute), merged PPR with the Gucci group (Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Alexander McQueen) in 2011,[7] and then further expanded its portfolio of luxury brands (Brioni, Qeelin, Pomellato, Ulysse Nardin, Creed, Valentino).

[6] After changing PPR's name to Kering[Notes 1] in June 2013 to conclude the group's transformation,[8][9] Pinault stopped acquiring luxury houses to focus on brand development and organic growth.

[16] 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.

[19][20] Since 2003, Pinault has been the president of Groupe Artémis[6] which owns Kering (majority shareholder), wines (Château Latour, Clos de Tart, Champagne Jacquesson), the auction house Christie's, news magazine Le Point and publishing house Tallandier, cruise operator Compagnie du Ponant,[21] fashion brands (Courrèges, Giambattista Valli) and the football team Stade Rennais F.C.