Loro Piana hires new CEO Damien Bertrand from Dior

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Oct 28, 2021

Thriving Italian luxury label Loro Piana has appointed as its new CEO Damien Bertrand, a young executive who has made a name for himself within the LVMH group. Bertrand, the current managing director of Christian Dior Couture, will assume the role of CEO at Loro Piana on November 15, replacing Fabio d'Angelantonio. Loro Piana was bought by the French luxury giant in 2013. FashionNetwork.com has also learned that the label recently hired Vittoria Pietropoli as communication director.

Bertrand joined Dior in September 2016 to oversee the label's womenswear divisions. His career progressed quickly, and he also took charge of the Dior Men and Baby Dior businesses, becoming the prestigious label’s de facto second in command. LVMH poached the promising young manager from L’Oréal, where he had worked for 18 years in increasingly senior positions, among them those of president of make-up brand Maybelline New York, country manager UK and Brazil, and finally managing director of the consumer goods division. For Bertrand, a graduate of the HEC business school, it was at the time a return to his roots, having first started in business at LVMH in 1998, as marketing director Australia of Guerlain.
 
“Damien's elevation to the position of CEO reflects the ability of LVMH to foster great leaders through well-managed internal career plans,” said in a note Toni Belloni, group managing director of LVMH, underlining Bertrand's capacity for “obtaining remarkable results thanks to his sense of product excellence, his bold ideas and his commitment to the brand’s desirability. A tried-and-tested leader, [Bertrand] has the ability to stimulate the talent of the people he works with, promoting a strong team spirit,” added Belloni.

“Tapping his leadership qualities, [Bertrand] will capitalise on his past experience to ensure the growth of the Italian label, well-known for the exceptional quality of its fabrics and its understated elegance. Damien will spearhead a new evolution phase for Loro Piana, and will ensure the development of new product categories, while guaranteeing the label will stay true to its unique values and its constant quest for excellence,” said LVMH.
 
In other words, the new CEO will continue and consolidate the work of Fabio D’Angelantonio, who in five years “has been able to manage the transformation of Loro Piana, a family company that under his leadership has become a true LVMH label, with the greatest respect for [Loro Piana’s] heritage and people (…) while improving its performance and modernising its key functions and products,” said the label’s president Antoine Arnault.
 
Crucially, Bertrand, who will report to Andrea Guerra, will be tasked with stepping up the pace of Loro Piana’s expansion. In 2019, the label generated a revenue of €1 billion and is expected to grow further in 2021, as it continues to diversify its product range and extend its global footprint, chiefly in China.
 
To accompany this new phase, Loro Piana, which operates 152 stores, of which 135 are directly managed, has also hired a head of communication, poaching Vittoria Pietropoli from Moncler, where she has worked for the last four years, first as head of the label's global digital PR office and later taking charge of marketing. After studying PR and communication in Milan, Pietropoli worked for a number of press offices, including Karla Otto, before joining Woolrich to head the brand’s global digital PR department.