Facebook’s former chief marketing officer Gary Briggs has joined the board of directors at Chronext, one of Europe’s largest pre-owned watch etailers.
Mr Briggs announced his retirement from Facebook in 2018, appropriately with a post on the social media platform.
He said that after four and a half years as CMO at Facebook, the time was right to “pursue advisory work for a few companies and hopefully join a few boards”.
Prior to Facebook, Mr Briggs was chief marketing officer at eBay North America and VP of global marketing at PayPal.
After helping Facebook grow a company of 6,000 to 17,000 employees and from $7.8bn to $27.6bn in revenues during his time at the company, Mr Briggs has joined boards at Petco, Afterpay and Etsy.
“We are incredibly excited about Gary joining us to strengthen our Board further. I am sure we will greatly benefit from his deep experience building world-leading digital brands when it comes to rolling out CHRONEXT’s value proposition globally. Winning him as a sparring partner will help us accelerate CHRONEXT’s growth further,” says CHRONEXT CEO Philipp Man.
Mr Briggs adds: “As a digital and physical partner supporting customers through all stages of luxury watch ownership, CHRONEXT caters to future demand, driven by a new generation of buyers and collectors of luxury watches. Like many other industries, this sector is facing unprecedented change, and I was attracted by CHRONEXT’s ambition. I look forward to helping CHRONEXT capitalize on further growth through market expansion, new partnerships and M&A.”
Mr Briggs is the latest high profile appointment to the CHRONEXT board.
Nobert Platt, a former CEO of Richemont, joined as advisor to the company in June.
The Switzerland-based company also appointed Jacob Fonnesbech Aqraou as chairman earlier this year.
Mr Fonnesbech Aqraou has been a serial investor and advisor in European technology businesses for the past five years following 13 years at eBay, where he rose to become senior vice president for eBay marketplaces in EMEA. Along with his new role with CHRONEXT, he remains deputy chairman at TeamViewer, chairman of Wallapop, Phase One and Capture One.
CHRONEXT also recruited Hamdi Chatti to its board at the beginning of the year.
Mr Chatti is a luxury specialist, having spent over 25 years in leadership positions with Richemont and LVMH brands including Cartier, Piaget and Montblanc, Harry Winston and LVMH Jewellery and Watches.
He was chairman of Damas Jewellery, one of the Middle East’s largest jewellers, until the end of last year and he remains chairman of Gübelin.
