Prada hires former Luxottica chief Andrea Guerra as new CEO

11:21 am Tuesday, December 06th, 2022

(Reuters) -Italian fashion group Prada confirmed on Tuesday that it would name former Luxottica chief Andrea Guerra as its new chief executive officer to ease a transition at the helm to the next generation of the founding family.

Current CEO Patrizio Bertelli, 76, will be appointed chairman of the luxury company at annual shareholder meeting next spring. He will replace Paolo Zannoni who will be recommended for the role of executive deputy chairman of the group and chairman of its parent company Prada Holding.

Current co-CEO Miuccia Prada, 73, will remain creative director of the Miu Miu and Prada brands – the latter together with Belgian designer Raf Simons – and a board member.

Reuters reported last week that the fashion group was set to hire Guerra in a top management role to ease the succession path of the Hong Kong-listed group founded in Milan in 1913 as a leather goods shop by designer Miuccia Prada’s grandfather and his brother.

After overseeing a successful turnaround since 2017 to reverse a slide in sales, Bertelli said a year ago he planned to hand over the reins of the group he leads with wife Miuccia Prada to their 34-year-old son Lorenzo.

“This is a fundamental step we have decided to undertake, while completely engaged in the company, to contribute more to the evolution of the Prada Group and to ease the succession of Lorenzo Bertelli, the future leader of the group,” they said in Tuesday’s statement.

Guerra, 57, will be recommended as the new CEO at a board meeting to be held on Jan.26 by Prada Holding, which owns 80% of Prada group.

Earlier this year he stepped down as head of the hotels division at luxury goods giant LVMH.

As Luxottica CEO from 2004 to 2014, the manager oversaw a more than doubling in sales at the spectacles manufacturer that has been producing and distributing eyeglasses under the Prada group’s Prada and Miu Miu brands since 2003.

(Reporting by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru, Claudia Cristoferi in Milan; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Keith Weir)