The top position at the luxury group Kering is in demand, but it is currently in the spotlight of the fashion industry like hardly any other. Luca de Meo will hold this role from next week. A look at his résumé reveals that the previous automotive CEO not only has a sensitivity for brands, but also a soft spot for creative ideas and chic suits.
Passion as a job
As a child, he was obsessed with cars, Luca de Meo, who was born in Milan in 1967 in 1967. But it was only only his study at the renowned Milan University of Bocconi opened the boy with roots in the southern Italian region of Apulia “without many possibilities”, he says in a podcast of his Alma Mater published in May.
After a thesis on business ethics, the business student turns his passion into a job and begins his more than thirty-year career in the auto industry in 1992-in the marketing department of the French car manufacturer Renault.
It does not last long for the busy manager, his next station leads him as a manager for product and planning to the Japanese car company Toyota. Then he goes to the car maker Fiat Chrysler, where he heads the brands Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo and becomes the Fiat Group’s marketing group.
Over the years, his image is growing as a brand expert and with every further change of job he continues to climb the career ladder: From 2009 to 2012, he worked as a Chief Marketing Officer at the Deutsche Volkswagen Group and for Audi, from 2015 as a CEO near Seat in Barcelona.
Successful change
His professional change seem to be related to his preference for changes and the opportunities they bring with them. “I always tried this and it is something I advise everyone: changes offer you the right conditions to move further and further up,” said the former Renault CEO in a conversation with influencer Romain Lanéry, which was published as a video five years ago on the official YouTube channel by Renault.
A circle closes for the ambitious manager when he returns to his very first employer Renault. From July 2020, he will be head of the car company with an annual turnover of 55 billion euros and a production of 3.75 million vehicles per year – but also a loss of 141 million euros.
The time was a explosive-it was not only crisis in the group for a long time, and his previous predecessor Carlos Ghosn had fled to Lebanon in a film-like campaign from Japan last year after he was released from pre-trial detention against a deposit. The Japanese judiciary had arrested Ghosn for infidelity and other offenses, the allegations are still denied today.
Branded rescuer
After starting at Renault, Luca de Meo begins to reduce costs and launches new car models. He also recognizes the signs of time and designs a strategy for electric vehicles that contains the establishment of its own company amper. In his term of office, Renault rewritten the black, the price price doubled.
In addition to the successful reintroduction of the Fiat 500 car model and the Cupra model at SEAT, the latest chapter at the French car company is particularly strengthening the reputation of Luca de Meo. His reputation to save and launch brands now seems to be well received far beyond the car industry.
“He demonstrated his skills in the management of large transformations in the companies he has managed,” said still chief Francois-Henri Pinault during an analyst: Inner conference after the appeal of the future CEO. He also appreciates the manager’s will to innovate, which in his opinion fits perfectly with the tasks at Kering.
“Luca has a 360-degree strategy that includes understanding, marketing, branding, supply chains financing and technology,” enthuses Pinault during the call.
Raised
The battered luxury group Kering also costs this expertise a lot. The new managing director Luca de Meo should get a bonus of 20 million euros-15 million in cash and 5 million euros in the form of Kering shares. These should compensate for his lost claims to long -term variable remuneration components in the form of shares in Renault.
His annual fixed content is 2.2 million euros gross. In addition, there is a variable remuneration that is expected to be 4.84 million euros in 2026 when they reach targets and if they are exceeded, even increasing to 6.6 million euros. The goals that Luca de Meo must meet will only be determined in the first quarter of the coming year. First, the Kering shareholders have to agree to the remuneration and premium on Tuesday, as well as confirm the new CEO.
From September 15, the 58-year-old Milanese must then demonstrate whether his success record collected in the transformation of car brands can be converted to the fashion industry. It crisis with the French luxury group, revenues and profits continued to collapse in the past half year. The reason is the problems of the former draft horse Gucci.
After the boom years in which the former creative director Alessandro Michele set one trend after the other, the attraction of the brand evaporated. Their sales fell from four to three billion euros in the past half of the year. The proceeds recently decreased at the other group brands like Yves Saint Laurent.
A new vision for luxury fashion
Kering’s problems are not only homemade, after years of growth and in view of a reserved consumer mood, the luxury industry is in a self -discovery phase. In this situation, the Kering supervisory board head Francois-Henri Pinault hopes not only that de Meo deals with cost reductions and debt reduction.
That is only short -term measures, rather he hopes for a future vision for the luxury group and the fashion industry from the automotive veteran, said Pinault at the conference call in June. What could the Kering profile look like in the next ten to 15 years? “A look beyond the borders of the industry was not only important for the group, but also for the current situation of this industry,” said Pinault about the choice of de Meo.
This has never been afraid of major visions. At Renault, he has presented plans with big names such as “Renaulution” or “Futurama” in recent years. Before the European election last year, as then President of the European Automobile Lobby ACEA, he wrote a letter to Europe with a plea for a sustainable and competitive automotive industry, translated into twelve languages.
Industry eulicling as CEO
Even if the choice of an automobile manager initially seems unusual, it is not the first time that a luxury fashion house decides on the outside. Four years ago, Chanel chose Leena Nair as managing director. She previously worked for almost 30 years at the consumer goods group Unilever with a range that ranges from cornetto ice cream to toothpaste from pepsodent. Pietro Beccari, current managing director of the luxury brand Louis Vuitton, also began his career with consumer goods companies such as Benckiser and Henkel.
In the auto industry, de Meo was always considered something more colorful than the gray technocrats. He was not only known for his sensitivity for brands, but also for more unusual presentations at industry events, write specialist media. He is said to have a preference for chic suits and de Meo has said to have been open to a position in the luxury industry for a long time. Perhaps in addition to his passion for cars, there was always a secret heart for fashion?
Complex task
More about his plans for Kering and his visions for the fashion industry should be known in the coming months. According to a presentation of Kering, he will soon present an organizational structure with the occupation of key roles after the start of office, followed by a long -term strategy plan in the course of the coming year.
The Renault share has not recovered from its low point since the departure of De Meo on June 16. Since then, the Kering stocks have increased by more than a third, despite the mixed half -year figures. As is well known, stock exchanges form the values of the future. And in the case of Kering, the securities – like the future managing director – seem to have confidence that it can solve complex tasks.
“The more complicated problems to solve, the more fun I have,” says de Meo on Renault’s YouTube channel. “The more I can learn things that I don’t know yet, the more fun it is.”