Tory Burch LLC has strengthened its management team with the appointment of three executives.
Christophe de Pous will join Tory Burch as president of North America on June 3, a new post. He will oversee the brand’s retail, e-commerce and wholesale operations in the region.
Emilia Fabricant has been promoted to president, chief merchandising and global supply chain officer, effective immediately.
In addition, Beverly Morgan will join as chief people officer, driving all aspects of the company’s hiring, retention and employee engagement strategy and execution globally, effective June 3.
All three executives will report to Pierre-Yves Roussel, chief executive officer of Tory Burch Group, and Tory Burch’s husband.
“Christophe and Beverly are seasoned executives with deep experience in the luxury industry, and I look forward to working with them as we continue to build on the great momentum of our business in North America, while scaling the brand globally,” said Roussel. “I am also very pleased to recognize Emilia’s contributions to our business with the appointment of her role to president. She has had a transformative effect on our merchandising and product creation teams along with our supply chain capabilities,” he said.
Tory Burch, chairman and chief creative officer, added, “I am happy to welcome Christophe and Beverly and to acknowledge Emilia’s expanded scope of responsibilities. It is an exciting time for our company and I could not be more appreciative of our entire global leadership team.”
De Pous comes to Tory Burch from Clarins where he was most recently president, global/international markets. Before that, he was president and CEO of Gucci Americas Inc. and earlier, president and CEO of Gucci Japan.
De Pous’ appointment complements Burch’s regional leadership structure in APAC, Japan, Europe and the Middle East. De Pous will be based at the company’s New York headquarters.
In an interview Friday, Roussel explained why he chose now to name a North American president and what led to that decision. “Why now and why not before?” said Roussel, who had been handling the role of president of North America in addition to his global duties as CEO. He said the North American business is very significant.
“When I joined [in 2019], I really wanted to be fully emerged in the North American business, in addition to building the whole international expansion,” said Roussel. He said when one considers the size and growth of the business, “I think it was the right time to do it.” The company has the equivalent structural organization overseas, he said.
“The other thing that has changed the last few years is the importance of coordinating our wholesale, retail and e-commerce in the region,” said Roussel.
“We see the customer shopping online, returning the product in the store, going into the store, and ordering online from the store when we don’t have the whole collection. They can go online and click on our website and be connected to a sales associate in the store. There are multiple connections that require operational coordination from a customer standpoint,” he said.
“We manage much more significantly across our distribution channels, which makes it much more efficient. We’re bringing more innovation with a higher speed of innovation, and the management is becoming more critical. The challenge was to find the right profile,” added Roussel.
Roussel emphasized said de Pous has both a global and luxury background. “He has long experience in working in a luxury brand, which is important for us, given our positioning and strategy,” said Roussel. In addition, he worked in cosmetics which gives him a good background in retail and marketing.
Asked if beauty will be a big initiative for Tory going forward, Roussel said, “We’ve launched a whole collection with Shiseido, our important partner, and we’ll have some important initiatives this year and in the coming years.”
As for de Pous’ priorities, Roussel said, “We have great momentum. We are happy with how things are taking shape. We’ve made multiple changes on the produce elevation and store concept [Mercer Street, which they’re rolling out.] This year we’ll be reopening our Rodeo Drive flagship. It’s a great store that we had before, and we’re working on a whole new concept.”
“He’s jumping on a train that’s running at full speed,” he said. “The size of our operation is very significant, and the scale of it, and it requires very detailed and precise execution,” said Roussel, who prior to joining Burch was chairman and CEO of the LVMH Fashion Group.
Morgan was most recently with LVMH where she was chief people officer at Benefit Cosmetics. Prior to LVMH, she worked in various talent management roles including Alexander Wang and Hugo Boss. She succeeds Keisha Smith, who held the same title and was with the firm six years. She decided to leave to pursue new opportunities.
Roussel said Morgan’s background at a cosmetic company allowed her to develop great experience in retail, which is an important part of Burch’s business. “It’s not easy finding that caliber,” he said.
Fabricant joined Burch in 2019 as executive vice president and chief merchandising officer and added the role of chief supply chain officer in 2023. She has played a pivotal role in enabling Tory Burch to create a distinct competitive advantage in its product strategy, development and supply chain capabilities, the company said.
“It’s very important to connect design, merchandising and product development in a very efficient and calibrated way,” said Roussel. “Translating Tory’s vision into a sample that is very well executed from a craft and production standpoint is incredibly important. This promotion reflects how happy we are with her.”
Asked if these appointments were setting the company up to go public one day, Roussel said, “This is independent of whatever would happen with our structure. We run the company with a vision of what we want to do in the next 10 years, regardless of whatever happens on that matter.”
According to Roussel, women represent 80 percent of Burch’s employees and more than 60 percent of their senior leadership team.
As far as the biggest opportunities for the brand this year, he said their wholesale partners are loving the new direction of the brand. The company is also excited about their e-commerce business. “Tory has always been at the forefront of e-commerce. I was very impressed when I joined with the capabilities that the company had built in e-commerce, which is a very big part of the business. Things evolve very quickly in that space.” He said they have invested significantly in technology and are improving the look and feel of the site. “It’s a very important part of our business in America and globally,” he said.
In business 20 years, Tory Burch made a big change in 2019 when she named Roussel as CEO. He set out to elevate and globalize the brand. The naming of Roussel of CEO allowed Burch to relinquish those duties and focus on design. Last October, sources told WWD Burch had hired Morgan Stanley to explore various alternatives, including a potential initial public offering.
Roussel declined to comment Friday on whether they hired Morgan Stanley.
