Luxury giant Richemont welcomes new generation of CEOs

Feb 6 , 2017

Juan-Carlos Torres, CEO of Vacheron Constantin

Richemont announces new CEOs for Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget while Tiffany and LVMH make similar changes

Richemont is undergoing major management shake-ups. The French luxury conglomerate which owns brands from Cartier to IWC, Vacheron Constantin and more announced a series of new brand CEOs.

Vacheron Constantin’s CEO Juan-Carlos Torres will become the company’s new non-executive president while Louis Ferla takes over as new CEO, effective April 1. Ferla joined Vacheron Constantin in 2015 and served as managing director of sales and marketing.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s CEO Daniel Riedo will leave by the end of this month while Georges Kern,CEO of IWC, who will assume the role as Richemont’s head of watchmaking, marketing and digital, takes over as interim CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

News also broke recently that Piaget’s Philippe Léopold-Metzger will also become non-executive president and the CEO role will be replaced by Chabi Nouri.

Richemont also announced in November last year that its CEO Richard Lepeu and chief financial officer Gary Saage will retire this year.

While Kern takes over as head of watchmaking, marketing and digital, Montblanc CEO Jérôme Lambert will be head of operations.

The major changes of top executives from top luxury brands are associated with last year’s market slowdown.

The shift is not only exclusive to Richemont brands. Tiffany & Co.’s CEO Frederic Cumenal will be replaced by chairman Michael Kowalski as interim CEO.