PARIS — Chanel has appointed three new members to its board of directors as part of an ongoing management overhaul.
The French fashion house confirmed on Thursday that it named Teresa Ko, Simone Bagel-Trah and William Touche non-executive directors, in a move that boosts diversity on the board.
Ko, a Hong Kong-based corporate and securities lawyer, is China chairman of Freshfields and a founding partner of the law firm’s Asia equity capital markets practice.
Trained as a natural scientist, Bagel-Trah is chairwoman of the supervisory board and shareholders’ committee of German multinational chemical and consumer goods company Henkel.
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Touche is a former senior partner and vice chairman at accounting and consulting firm Deloitte in the U.K., who specialized in the technology, media and telecom and consumer sectors.
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“With these appointments, Chanel continues to further evolve the board’s wealth of experience in line with the highest standards of governance in an increasingly challenging environment,” the company said in a statement.
The appointments follow the end of the mandates of Olivier Nicolay and Richard Collasse, who retired, and John Galantic, who stepped down as president and chief operating officer of Chanel’s U.S. division in 2023. He is now chief executive officer of Tod’s Group.
With the new appointments, more than 40 percent of the 12-member board is female, versus 33 percent in 2023, Chanel said. When Vincent Shaw, the house’s retired president of APAC, leaves the board in March, its composition will achieve gender parity, it added.
Chanel has seen a far-reaching management shake-up since the arrival of Leena Nair as global CEO in 2021, charged with implementing a long-term succession plan. The former Unilever executive assumed a title previously held by Chanel co-owner Alain Wertheimer, who became global executive chair of the company.
The brand again delivered record revenues in 2023, with sales up 16 percent at comparable rates to $19.7 billion, despite a slowdown in global luxury spending. This year will see the arrival of Mathieu Blazy as creative director, with his first collection set to bow in October.