Burberry appoints Liz Claiborne VP to take over from Rose Marie Bravo |
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Wed, 12 Oct 2005 19:05
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LONDON - Fashion house Burberry has decided to replace chief executive Rose Marie Bravo with Angela Ahrendts, the executive vice president at the American clothes wear company, Liz Claiborne.
Ms Bravo will be elevated to the newly created post of vice-chairman, but her earnings will drop to £370,000 a year as compared to the £2.2 million that she earned as chief executive last year. "Over the past eight years, Rose Marie Bravo has led Burberry through an extraordinary transformation whilst achieving excellent results.
Rose Marie and I agree that the time is now right for her role to transition to that of vice chairman," said John Peace, the chairman of Burberry. Ms Ahrendts will join the firm on 9 January as an executive director and take over as chief executive from July 2006. She has been lured to London with a hefty pay package of $31 million (£18 million) over five years.
Ms Bravo joined Burberry in 1997 and in the eight years at the helm has transformed the company from a £200 million firm to an ultra-fashionable £2 billion global giant. "I'd like to think I have the ability to not be involved in the day to day and step back a bit," she said yesterday. She is delighted that Ms Ahrendts has agreed to join the company, "It feels wonderful," said Ms Bravo. "I'm really excited that she has agreed to join the company."
On her part, Ms Ahrendts said she was looking forward to the challenge, "It will always be challenging to follow in someone's footsteps," she said. "With the management at Burberry and maybe some fresh ideas, it will be a great partnership."
The move comes as retail conglomerate GUS is all set to unload its 66 percent share back to the company in December.
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GUS to jettison 66 percent stake in Burberry 