PARIS — Kering has appointed Armelle Poulou chief financial officer, the latest move following an executive reshuffle announced last week.
The company said on Friday that Poulou will take the role on Sept. 1, succeeding Jean-Marc Duplaix, who had been in the position since 2012 and was made deputy chief executive officer in charge of operations and finance in the management shake-up.
The executive will continue to report to Duplaix in her new role, the company said.
A 1993 graduate of elite French business school HEC, Poulou joined the French luxury group in 2019 and is currently its director of corporate finance, treasury and insurance.
Prior to joining Kering, Poulou spent over two decades at France’s state-owned multinational electric utility company EDF in various financial positions, most recently as group treasurer, a position she held for more than three years. Prior to that, she worked in a number of international groups including Procter & Gamble and IT multinational Hewlett-Packard.
Poulou’s appointment comes a day after the French group announced it had bought a 30 percent stake in Valentino for 1.7 billion euros in cash, with an option to buy 100 percent of Valentino’s capital by 2028, as part of a broader strategic partnership with Qatari investment fund Mayhoola.
The group reported second-quarter results that lagged its peers, with net profit falling 10 percent to 1.8 billion euros in the first half of 2023 versus the same period last year, as solid growth in Asia was offset by a drop in U.S. sales.
The reorganization at the top included the appointment of Saint Laurent president and CEO Francesca Bellettini as deputy CEO in charge of brand development; managing director Jean-François Palus as president and CEO of Gucci ad interim; the exit of Gucci’s incumbent CEO Marco Bizzarri; as well as the arrival of former Chanel global CEO Maureen Chiquet on the Kering board in September.
