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PARIS — Chanel has recruited Hélène de Tissot, a finance executive with two decades of experience at French spirits group Pernod Ricard, to be its next chief financial officer. De Tissot will join Chanel in October, before officially taking up the CFO role in January, replacing current CFO Philippe Blondiaux, who is set to retire at the end of the year.
De Tissot previously served as CFO of Pernod Ricard in Asia as well as director of M&A for the group and was most recently executive vice president of finance and technology at the French wine and spirits company. She started her career as an international tax lawyer at Arthur Andersen.
De Tissot will report to Chanel CEO Leena Nair, who has been gradually renewing Chanel’s top management ranks as longtime executives retire. The British-Indian former Unilever human resources chief has been a beacon of change in a tradition-soaked luxury fashion industry that often recruits from within.
Chanel isn’t the only French luxury group that has been shuffling its top management ranks. LVMH’s finance chief Cécile Cabanis and managing director Stéphane Bianchi stepped into their roles two years ago, while at Kering, former automobile executive Luca de Meo was drafted in to take the reins as CEO last year. All three replaced executives who had held their roles for at least two decades.
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The changes have come as the luxury sector seeks to pull itself out of a prolonged sales slump. Chanel has fared better than rivals, returning to growth last year while others continue to struggle to reignite sales.
The company is privately owned by billionaire brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer.
Learn more:
Chanel CFO Philippe Blondiaux to Retire at Year’s End
The departure of Chanel’s finance chief after 15 years in the role comes amid generational change at the French couture and beauty giant and the wider luxury industry.
Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority interest in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholders’ documentation guaranteeing BoF’s complete editorial independence.
