Johann Rupert

Rupert started his career in New York City, where he worked for Chase Manhattan for two years and Lazard Freres for three years. He then returned to South Africa in 1979 and founded Rand Merchant Bank of which he was CEO.

1984: Merged RMB and Rand Consolidated Investments, forming RMB Holdings, and left to join his father's company, the Rembrandt Group.

1988 Founded Compagnie Financiere Richemont and was appointed Non-Executive Director of Rothmans International plc.

1989: Appointed Vice Chairman of the Rembrandt Group.

1990: Formed Richemont subsidiary Vendôme Luxury Group SA.

1991: Appointed Chairman of Rembrandt Group Limited.

1997: Appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Gold Fields South Africa Ltd.

2000: Restructured Rembrandt Group Limited and formed Remgro Limited and VenFin Limited. Appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA.

In May 2025, Rupert was part of the South African delegation that accompanied President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House, to meet with United States President Donald Trump. The meeting, attended by South African politicians, businesspeople, and athletes, was arranged (at the request of Ramaphosa) to attempt to reset SA-US relations, following some diplomatic issues. The meeting was generally deemed a success by the South African government.

Rupert grew up in Stellenbosch, where he attended Paul Roos Gymnasium and the University of Stellenbosch, studying economics and company law. He dropped out of the university to pursue a career in business, however, in 2004, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in economics.

In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Described as "reclusive" by the Financial Times and Barron's, Rupert rarely gives interviews and shuns public events. He is nicknamed "Rupert the Bear".

Rupert has declared his sympathy for and belief in the idea of a universal basic income.

When the British design magazine Wallpaper* described the Afrikaans language as "one of the ugliest languages in the world" in its September 2005 edition (in reference to the Afrikaans Language Monument), Rupert responded by withdrawing advertising for his companies' brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill from the magazine.

In December 2016, it was reported that Rupert had dropped Bell Pottinger as the PR agency of Richemont, accusing Bell Pottinger of running a social media campaign against him, to divert attention away from persistent 'state capture' allegations levelled at the Gupta family. Interpol has issued red notices against Atul and Rajesh Gupta — two of the three Indian-origin Gupta brothers — who fled South Africa with their families amid investigations into their alleged looting of billions of rands from state-owned enterprises.

In September 2017, Rupert, during Richemont’s annual general meeting in Geneva, described the use of the term "Radical Economic Transformation" by Bell Pottinger as "just a code word for theft”, in order to cover up the "state capture" by their clients, the notorious Gupta family. Radical Economic Transformation is a policy championed by President Jacob Zuma to reduce racial inequality in South Africa.

In 2018, Rupert caused some controversy in South Africa for comments he made during an interview with PowerFM. He was criticised for denying the alleged existence of white monopoly capital, his account of the process of Afrikaner economic upliftment, and for comments he made regarding the saving habits of black South Africans. Following the incident, Rupert issued an apology for his comments. The controversial leader of the Black First Land First party Andile Mngxitama stated afterwards that Rupert's comments were a reason to commit violence against white South Africans.