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GENEVA, Switzerland — Richemont said Co-Chief Executive Officer Bernard Fornas will retire as the world's largest jewellery maker is in the midst of a job-cut plan at its top watchmaking brands, including Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Piaget.
Fornas will leave at the end of March after two decades with the company and remain on the board, Richemont said in a statement Friday. Separately, the company is cutting 300 jobs at its Swiss watchmaking operations, Tribune de Geneve reported, without saying how it got the information. Richemont previously said it planned to eliminate 350 positions. Nobody at Richemont immediately responded to a request for comment ahead of normal business hours.
Cartier Chief Executive Officer Cyrille Vigneron also will join the executive committee of the Geneva-based company, whose full name is Cie. Financiere Richemont SA. Alain Dominique Perrin, a board member and former Richemont CEO who Chairman Johann Rupert dubbed "Mr. Cartier" for his role at that brand, will leave the board in September, after which he will be a consultant to the company.
To replace him, Richemont is proposing Jeff Moss, a computer and Internet security expert who serves as a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council and Council on Foreign Relations. Previously he was chief security officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN.
By Thomas Mulier; editors: Matthew Boyle, Phil Serafino and Tom Lavell.
