PARIS — Vincent Reynes has been named chief executive officer of Parisian jeweler Fred and will take up his role on Sept. 1, WWD has learned.
The incoming executive succeeds Charles Leung, who was named CEO of Chaumet as part of an executive shuffle in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s watches and jewelry division in November and remained as interim CEO in addition to his new duties.
Reynes was most recently president and CEO of Bulgari Japan and has spent more than 20 years at the Roman jeweler in various international executive positions, including managing director of Bulgari U.K., then leading its Middle East and Africa region. Prior to that, he served as the jeweler’s global brand image, creativity and worldwide sales marketing director for more than three years.
A graduate of the ISG Business School in Paris, Reynes began his career in advertising before joining LVMH-owned Bulgari in 2001 to head its perfume and cosmetics marketing department in Switzerland.
He will be based in Paris and report to Stéphane Bianchi, who took over as LVMH group managing director from Toni Belloni in April in the latest chapter of a generational changing of the guard at the French luxury conglomerate.
“I am delighted with the appointment of Vincent as CEO of Fred, a new sign of the importance given to internal mobility and talent development within the LVMH Group,” said Bianchi in a statement shared exclusively with WWD.
“Throughout his career of more than 20 years within Bulgari, Vincent has demonstrated a strong and positive leadership, a deep sense of the product, as well as exceptional dynamism and engagement,” Bianchi continued. “I am certain that his personality and his qualities, combined with the tremendous work carried out by Charles Leung and his teams, will allow Fred to continue its expansion and to keep on increasing its desirability.”
In recent years, the 88-year-old Parisian jewelry label has been burnishing its heritage as well as experimenting with lab-grown diamonds, with a four-piece high jewelry set and an 8.88 carat loose diamond collectively dubbed “Fred Audacious Blue.”
It also staged a showing of its “Fred, Jeweler Creator since 1936” retrospective in Seoul in December at the Alt.1 Hyundai art gallery, with 300 jewels and objects, as well as more than 200 archival documents, including loans from private collections.
This month, the jeweler released a second chapter in its collaboration with the Roland-Garros tennis tournament.
