Richemont group has announced that its chief executive Bernard Fornas will retire at the end of the year, and will be succeeded by Stanislas de Quercize.
Fornas turned 65 earlier this month and though he will remain in a senior management role within Richemont working alongside Johann Ruper and Richard Lepeu, he will pass on his torch to de Quercize.
At present de Quercize is chief executive of Van Cleef & Arpels, a sister Richemont brand to Cartier. He will remain in his role at Van Cleef until the end of the year when he will begin at Cartier.
De Quercize joined Richemont in 1989 and is described as having "an extensive career" within the group. His past roles have been at Montblanc, Alfred Dunhill and Cartier, where he rose to be president of Cartier Inc in the United States.
He moved to Van Cleef in 2005. He role at the fine watch and jewellery house will be taken over by Nicolas Bos, currently Van Cleef’s creative director and chief executive in North America.
Last week Cartier unveiled a video to celebrate is 165th anniversary. The three minute clip took more than two years to make and has references to Cartier’s numerous iconic motifs, such as the panther and Trinity rings, while a dragon and the Great Wall of China also feature, as a play on new markets and the Year of the Dragon, which is celebrated in 2012.
