André Maeder, who was previously CEO of the KaDeWe Group, is moving to London to the Selfridges Group.
The Berlin-based KaDeWe Group announced that Maeder will take on the role of CEO at the British luxury department store operator, which includes the department store of the same name, De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands and Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland. He will leave his position at the operator of the luxury department stores KaDeWe, Alsterhaus and Oberpollinger at the end of August and take on his new role at the beginning of May. Until then he will work as a consultant for the Selfridges Group.
In his new role, he reports to the co-chairmen and owners of the Selfridges Group, Tos Chirathivat from the Thai Central Group and Dieter Berninghaus, who is responsible for the retail business of the Austrian Signa Group. In addition to Selfridges, the two retail and real estate groups are also behind the KaDeWe Group and together form one of the leading luxury department store groups.
Already at the end of March it became clear that Maeder should take on a new role in the Signa and Central Group network. At that time, he was supposed to take over overall responsibility for the European luxury department stores on April 1, 2023, but remain active as CEO of the KaDeWe Group, as the latter confirmed to FashionUnited at the time. However, it is now clear that he should concentrate on the management in London.
Maeder took over management of the KaDeWe Group almost ten years ago. During this time, he was responsible, among other things, for the renovation of the three stores as well as the strategic expansion with the planned locations Carsch-Haus in Düsseldorf and Lamarr in Vienna, which are scheduled to open in early 2025.
Realignment at the top of the KaDeWe Group
At the KaDeWe Group, CFO Michael Peterseim will take over management in November and will initially take on the role of CEO (acting). He has been the group’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since 2018 and is part of the management team. This will also be expanded to include two positions next month. Janina Schüßler will be appointed to the newly created position of Director Marketing Communications and Julia Lehmann will be appointed Director Merchandise Management.
Schüßler is moving up from her previous position as Senior Head of the Marketing Department, which she has held since January 2022. Before that, she worked in various roles at the Metzingen clothing retailer Hugo Boss. Most recently, she was responsible for marketing for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
With her new role, Lehmann also takes on responsibility for the logistics area. She has been with the group as Senior Head Merchandise Management since June 2021. She came from the Berlin online retailer Zalando, where she most recently worked as a senior merchandise planner. She also worked for Hugo Boss.
In the future, the management of the KaDeWe Group will consist of Peterseim, Lehmann and Schüßler as well as Simone Heift, Director Buying; Timo Weber, Director Retail; Lars Globisch, Director IT and Process Management; and Karin Bergmann, Director People and HR.