Great-great-grandson of Thierry Hermès, founder of the Hermès luxury house. Born in 1943 in a suburb of Paris, France. He grew up roaming the Hermès headquarters on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré but showed little interest in the business, preferring to socialise with celebrities including Yves Saint Laurent. He left France in the 1990s and retreated from public life, shuttling between a farm outside Seville and a converted inn in the Swiss Alps.
Mr Puech's mother, Yvonne Puech (née Hermès), died in 1996 and left him a 4.7% stake in Hermès. He acquired another 1% when his sister Odile died in 2004, bringing his total to nearly 6%—making him the largest individual shareholder. The stake would have been worth €13bn ($15bn). He deposited the shares, which were bearer shares, in three Swiss banks on the advice of his banker Eric Freymond, whom he had met in 1989. In 1998 Mr Puech gave Mr Freymond near-total control of his finances, including the right to sell assets on his behalf, and in 1999 granted him power of attorney.
When LVMH made its raid on Hermès stock, Mr Puech's extended family suspected he had aided Bernard Arnault. Mr Puech insisted he still held his 6% but refused to lock up his shares in H51, the family holding company. Instead, in 2011 he set up the Isocrates foundation to receive his shares upon his death.
In 2022 Mr Puech finally dismissed Mr Freymond after discovering that his letters requesting information about his holdings had gone unanswered and that the banker had taken on €20m in debt in his name. Mr Puech filed criminal complaints in Geneva and Paris. An audit established that he still had 535,899 shares at the end of 2013, but these were progressively sold so that by 2021 he had none left. Mr Freymond admitted to Parisian magistrates that he had sold the shares to LVMH, claiming his client was "perfectly informed"—a charge Mr Puech strenuously denied. He funnelled over €100m of Mr Puech's assets, including transfers to Noor Capital, an Emirati investment firm, and Hydroma, a Canadian firm with hydrogen projects in Mali.
Mr Freymond killed himself in July 2025, shortly after testifying. The case continues. Mr Puech, once among the world's richest men, told magistrates he was "in a desperate situation" and penniless. He had transferred dozens of properties to his Moroccan caretaker, Jadil Butrak-Abderrazak. Members of the Hermès family are giving him handouts.
It's always darkest just before the lights go out.