PARIS — Lacoste has appointed Philippe Gautier as executive vice president global finance, the French sportswear company said Monday.
The executive will report to the company’s chief executive officer Thierry Guibert and succeeds Denis Lamoureux, who had been in the position since 2017 and is exiting the group.
Guibert, who also serves as the CEO of Lacoste’s parent MF Brands Group, highlighted Gautier’s “in-depth knowledge of the fashion and lifestyle sectors, his significant international experience and his strong skills in implementing major projects, particularly in supply chain and IT.”
A graduate of elite French business school HEC, Gautier was most recently chief finance and operations officer for Waldencast, the parent company of Milk Makeup and Obagi Skincare.
Prior to this, the executive was group chief financial officer of food tech conglomerate Selecta for two years and served for five years as group chief financial and operations officer of apparel group SMCP, where he played a major role in the internationalization of the group’s brands, particularly in China and the U.S.; oversaw the acquisition of menswear label De Fursac, and managed the initial public offering of the group on Euronext Paris.
Gautier also spent more than a decade at various positions in the Kering group, which he joined in 2003 as brand CFO and group treasurer of online fashion and home furnishing distributor Redcats. He later served as COO and CFO of Puma for five years and was lastly CFO of Sergio Rossi until 2015.
Lacoste, which celebrated its 90th anniversary last year, is back on the runway at Paris Fashion Week with the formal debut of creative director Pelagia Kolotouros at 4 p.m. on March 5.
