Kering parts ways with Marco Bizzarri, while Francesca Bellettini gets a promotion

By

Olivier Guyot

Translated by
Cassidy STEPHENS

Published
July 18, 2023

The cards have been reshuffled at Kering. On Tuesday, the French luxury group announced major changes within the company. Most notably, Marco Bizzarri, who has been with the group for 18 years, CEO of Gucci since 2015 and a member of Kering's executive committee since 2012, is leaving the company. Jean-François Palus, deputy CEO of Kering, has been appointed CEO of Gucci for the time being. He will take up his new post in September, while Marco Bizzarri will end his contract on September 23.

Francesca Bellettini, CEO of Yves Saint Laurent since 2013, is also taking on additional responsibilities from September. She has been appointed deputy CEO of the group in charge of the development of the houses. "In order to facilitate the transition, Francesca Bellettini will gradually take up her new duties over the coming months; a new Yves Saint Laurent management team has been put in place," the group said in a statement.

Jean-Marc Duplaix, Kering's chief financial officer since 2012, has also been appointed deputy CEO of the group. He will be in charge of operations and finance. He will therefore manage "all the group's corporate functions and will be responsible for strengthening their efficiency and control." 

In its press release, Kering values the man who has been a "central figure in Kering's management team for eighteen years." Marco Bizzarri "has orchestrated the execution of Gucci's exceptional growth strategy since 2015, having previously enjoyed success in other parts of the group," the statement said. The Italian manager joined the company in 2005 from Mandarina Duck and Marithé + François Girbaud. Initially CEO of Stella McCartney, he took over as head of Bottega Veneta in 2009, overseeing the company's exponential growth until 2014, when sales topped the billion euro mark.

But since the sharp slowdown in Gucci, the group's flagship brand, in recent years, and the departure of Creative Director Alessandro Michele in November 2022 (replaced by Sabato De Sarno, who will start in September), his future within Kering seemed highly compromised.

With his new role at the helm of Gucci, Jean-François Palus will move to Milan, according to the company. His mission is "to strengthen Gucci's teams and operations, and to prepare its management teams and organisation for the future." "For several decades, Jean-François has been my right-hand man and teammate on a daily basis; he will now devote all his energy to fortifying our main asset," says Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault.

Francesca Bellettini, meanwhile, is one success story after another. A graduate of Milan's Bocconi University, she joined the fashion industry after starting her career in finance at Goldman Sachs. She joined the Prada group in 1999, later becoming head of operations at Helmut Lang. In 2003, she joined Kering, working first at Gucci, then at Bottega Veneta, before taking over as head of Yves Saint Laurent in 2013, which she took from sales of €550 million to almost €3 billion within ten years.

In her new role, "the CEOs of all the brands will report to her, and she will be responsible for guiding all the group's houses through the next stages of their development," says Kering. "While playing an essential role in the six-fold increase in Saint Laurent's sales since she took the helm, she has also been a first-rate collaborator," emphasises François-Henri Pinault, who explains these management changes by the desire to build "a more solid organisation to fully capture the growth of the global luxury goods market".

At the same time, the former CEO of Chanel, Maureen Chiquet, has been co-opted by Kering to join its board of directors as an independent director. She will join the board in September, replacing Daniela Riccardi, who resigned as a director in April. With this appointment, the luxury group welcomes a manager with a strong reputation in the sector, having worked for Chanel from 2003 to 2016. Last February, Maureen Chiquet was appointed president of the DoubleJ brand founded by American J.J. Martin and Italian Andrea Ciccoli.