Richemont has added a chief technology officer and group human resources director to its senior executive committee as the Swiss luxury group continues to rebuild its top team after a boardroom shake-up and the defection of George Kern, its head of watchmaking, to Breitling.
Dr Jean-Jacques van Oosten has been appointed to the newly created role of chief technology officer and will join the senior executive committee from January 2018. He has previously been the most senior technology and retail executive at global organisations including Travis Perkins Group, Tesco, Kingfisher, EDS and Unilever.
Sophie Guieysse has been appointed group human resources director and will join the senior executive committee next month.
She ended an eight year career at rival LVMH group as director of Human resources in 2005 before moving to Canal+ Group where she was HR director for a decade.
She replaces Thomas Lindemann who will leave Richemont for personal reasons and step down from the group management committee at the end of October.
Commenting on the changes, Mr Johann Rupert, chairman of Richemont, said: “I am delighted that Jean-Jacques van Oosten and Sophie Guieysse are joining Richemont and its senior executive committee. The creation of the chief technology officer position and Jean-Jacques van Oosten’s appointment reaffirms Richemont’s commitment to meet the demands of today’s environment. Jean-Jacques van Oosten brings over 15 years of experience in scaling, transforming and internationalising online and multichannel businesses. Sophie Guieysse brings a twenty-year human resources experience across diverse cultural environments in the luxury and digital sectors.
“These appointments will strengthen significantly the group’s ability to address current challenges and bring Richemont into a new era of agility and performance.”
