Wave of signings: international fashion appoints new captains in first half

New year, new captain. In the first six months of the year, several international fashion companies have appointed a new first executive in the framework of a process of restructuring or reorganization of the business.

The main appointment of the start of the year was the one of Carlos Crespo at Inditex. The executive, who last year was promoted to superdirector of operations, was proposed last May as the new CEO of the Spanish giant.

Crespo, who began his career at Inditex in 2001, will be responsible for leading the new stage of the company, which faces the biggest change in the model of history with which it will become, de facto, an online nature operator. This move has a profound impact on the operations and cost structure of the company.

PVH and Nike have appointed new managers in the digital area, in newly created positions

On the Pandora side, the Danish company incorporated Alexander Lacik as the new CEO, with the aim of undertaking a plan to contain costs and recover profitability after collapsing its net profit by 12% in 2018.

Another jewelry company that reordered its top management was Tous, with the incorporation of Carlos Soler-Duffo, until last February commercial director, who took the reins of the group after the departure of José María Folache. For his part, the then CEO of the jewelry company joined Parfois as CEO.

Adolfo Domínguez was another of the groups that appointed a new first executive in the first half of 2019. The Spanish company, piloted since 2017 by Adriana Domínguez, recovered the figure of general manager and placed Antonio Puente in front, who already exercised as number two of the designer's daughter.

Tous placed Carlos Soler-Duffo ahead after the departure of José María Folache, who signed for Parfois

In parallel, the giants of international fashion have continued to assemble their teams to face the digital transformation. In this sense, in May, PVH named Marie Gulin-Merle, until then director of marketing, as chief digital officer, a newly created position. In June, Nike did the same, who signed Ratnakar Lavu, director of technology and information at Kohl's, as its first director of global digital information.

Mike Ashley, meanwhile, put himself in front of Debenhams after a hard pulse for his control. The executive left his position as CEO to take over the group of department stores, after injecting 150 million pounds of the company.

Coty, for his part, put together a new management team after appointing Pierre Laubies as the new CEO at the end of last year. The company, which has not finished capitalizing on the purchase of the cosmetics and perfumery division of Procter & Gamble, appointed new heads of finance, supply chain and mass consumption at the beginning of the year to face a new restructuring plan.

They also named new captains Woolrich, who incorporated Stefano Saccone, from VF, as the new CEO; Vicunha, who promoted his financial director as the new CEO; Kering, who has signed Bartolomeo Rongone as CEO of Bottega Veneta, or Italia Independent, which incorporated Mario Pietribias in January.

The creative director ins and out goes on

The set of chairs in the creative departments has continued in the main international fashion companies. Kenzo, owned by LVMH, signed this month Felipe Oliveira Baptista, former creative director of Lacoste, after the departure of designers Humberto Leon and Carol Kim.

From LVMH came precisely Bruno Sialelli, who in January took over the creative area of ​​Lanvin, owned by the Chinese group Fosun. Another historian, Schiaparelli, signed Daniel Roseberry in April as head of design, replacing Bertrand Guyon.

For his part, the creative director of Azzaro, Maxime Simoëns, signed in March for Paule Ka, while Salvatore Ferragamo promoted in February Paul Andrew, head of the women's division, as the new creative director. The relief to the front of the artistic area is not limited to luxury: in March, Under Armor incorporated a former Nike, Kasey Jarvis, as the new head of global design.