Sowind - New governance announced

Massimo e Stefano Macaluso
Massimo and Stefano Macaluso

The board of directors of the holding company that brings together the historical Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard brands has defined the new governance, in the sign of family continuity after the untimely death of President Luigi Macaluso. Monica Mailander Macaluso is the new President of the parent company Sowind Group while the management of the company is entrusted to Luigi Macaluso's sons: Stefano and Massimo, respectively President and CEO Sowind SA.

The rest of the Board of Directors is confirmed. Joining Stefano and Massimo Macaluso as Vice Chairman will be Francois-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of PPR Group, which, under a strategic partnership agreement signed in 2008, owns 23% of Sowind Group. The other members are Robert Polet (CEO of Gucci Group) and Henry Peter.

The operational management of the group is entrusted to Stefano and Massimo Macaluso, President and CEO respectively of Sowind SA. Stefano Macaluso, formerly Vice-President of the company, has been working alongside his father for the past ten years in defining the strategic lines for the creation and development of products, in the management of industrial processes and in commercial management.

Massimo Macaluso, who has also been with the group for about ten years and is Vice President of the company, in addition to supporting Luigi Macaluso in managing the group's strategies, was responsible as Managing Director for the development of the JeanRichard brand internationally.

The Board of Directors also approved the creation of a 'Strategic Management Committee' that will define development guidelines and will meet periodically in the coming months to monitor management.

For Monica Mailander Macaluso, "The definition of the new governance on the one hand emphasises the family's commitment and will to give continuity and drive forward the group's technological innovation and commercial growth projects, projects in which it firmly believes. On the other hand, through the managerial sharing process, it guarantees the skills and resources that are now indispensable to support these growth projects in the international market.

Francois-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of PPR, on the other hand, said: "Ever since we joined Sowind, we have shared a common vision of the long-term prospects for growth in the Haute Horlogerie sector. We will support with the utmost confidence the approach that Stefano and Massimo Macaluso will give to the management of the company and we will support the group's development plans".

For Stefano Macaluso, 'the choices of these days represent nothing more than the acceleration of a process already underway that saw the management of the group increasingly in the management perspective. With a well-defined entrepreneurial project in terms of both product development and the strengthening of worldwide distribution'.

On the other hand, Massimo Macaluso wanted to emphasise: 'we are a multinational company that has subsidiaries in 8 countries and is present in 60 countries. We will therefore continue the development plan already outlined, counting on two very important assets. On the one hand, our uniqueness in the haute horlogerie panorama, linked to the incredible wealth of knowledge and technical and production culture developed within us. On the other, our managerial organisation and a high-profile and competent management staff that has been working alongside us for years and which will enable us to pursue projects that are ever closer to our customers and the market in order to further enhance the value of our brands.

What Massimo and Stefano Macaluso wish to highlight, however, is how "all this is nothing more than the logical consequence of a design already mapped out, the fruit of a work in progress. It is a tribute to the courage and entrepreneurial and creative skills of Luigi Macaluso, who we believe was able to give international greatness to a brand that will celebrate its 220th anniversary next January'.

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