Burberry announces that Angela Ahrendts will step down as Chief Executive Officer by mid-2014 to take up a new position with Apple. Christopher Bailey is to be appointed to the position of Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer. This follows nearly a decade during which Angela, Christopher and the senior executive team have transformed Burberry into a world leading digital luxury brand.
Christopher has been at Burberry since 2001 and Chief Creative Officer for the past six years. He has overseen all consumer-facing activities, including product design and development, creative marketing, store design, consumer technology and digital innovation.
In line with other great creative companies, Christopher will continue to create and drive the vision for the company closely supported by an outstanding and experienced team and strong partners. To assure a seamless transition, Christopher and Angela will continue to work closely over the coming months. He will be joining the Board in due course.
Christopher Bailey commented:
“I am profoundly moved and humbled to be asked to take on the CEO role at this company that means so much to me. I also feel privileged to be keeping my role as Chief Creative Officer, as I believe that creativity and innovation have been at the heart of our success in the last ten years and will be even more so in the decade ahead. We have a clear strategy to build on, an increasingly powerful brand and an inspiring management team. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of design, technology and communication while never forgetting our heritage, our Britishness and our values.
It has been my privilege to work with people right across the company over the last ten years, and whilst I am sad no longer to have the inspirational leadership of Angela, who has been an absolute joy to work with, I feel more than confident that part of her legacy is an enormously strong team in all of our areas.”
Angela Ahrendts said:
“Burberry is in brilliant shape, having built the industry's most powerful management team, converted the business to a dynamic digital global retailer, created a world class supply chain, state of the art technology infrastructure, sensational brand momentum and one of the most closely connected creative cultures in the world today. It has been an honour to have partnered with Sir John Peace and Christopher for the last eight years.
I am confident that, with Sir John’s continued guidance and the executive team’s support, Christopher, as one of this generation’s greatest visionaries, will continue to lead Burberry to new heights. Today, Burberry is not only a great brand, but a truly great company.”
Sir John Peace, Chairman of Burberry, commented:
“I want to thank Angela personally for building a great culture and leading the company through the incredible transformation over the last eight years. This CEO transition is a natural progression and comes as Burberry reports yet another strong first half revenue performance.
The new Beauty division is fully embedded and the Japan integration is well underway. I have no doubt that Christopher’s vision and leadership, with the excellent management team in place, will keep Burberry on the forefront creatively, digitally and financially, creating further value for shareholders in the next exciting stage of our evolution.”
