Thierry Esslinger was appointed CEO of Breguet in September 2017 and officially took up his position before Baselworld 2018 (see his interview on page 30). He had previously handled various projects for the brand as well as serving for years as a consultant for other Swatch Group brands. He had spent his entire career to date with the Hayek Engineering company of which he is a board member.

Catherine Rénier was appointed CEO at Jaeger- LeCoultre in May 2018, having started with the Richemont group 19 years previously as Retail Development Director for Cartier USA. After joining Van Cleef & Arpels in 2003 as Deputy International Deputy Marketing Director, she continued her career in Hong Kong and Macau from 2008 onwards, climbing to the rank of Managing Director for the brand in the region.

Jean-Marc Pontroué is taking the helm of Panerai this summer as CEO, a position he had occupied at Roger Dubuis since 2011, after ten years at the head of Montblanc’s watchmaking division. This keen marathon runner began his career in the leather goods industry, before joining the LVMH group in 1995 as Sales Manager for Givenchy.

Geoffroy Lefebvre is the new CEO of Baume & Mercier since June 1st 2018. After ten years as a strategy, operations and technology consultant for McKinsey, he joined the Richemont group in 2011 to take charge of the group’s industrial strategy, and subsequently of operational management at Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Alain Zimmermann has been appointed Director of brand e-distribution strategy for the Richemont watch brands. He began his career at L’Oréal in 1989, before working in sales and marketing for Richemont as of 1995. After a three-year stint at the Julius Baer private bank, he took up the position of CEO at Baume & Mercier, where he was one of the first to take an interest in digital issues.