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De Grisogono Hires Luxury Veteran as CEO
The high jewelry and watch brand named Piaget executive Céline Assimon to succeed John Leitao.
Piaget executive Céline Assimon is stepping into the role of CEO at high jewelry and watch brand De Grisogono.
Zurich, Switzerland—Swiss brand De Grisogono has a new CEO.
The high jewelry and watch company has hired Céline Assimon to succeed John Leitao, who stepped into the position in May 2013.
Assimon most recently served as the international high jewelry and exceptional pieces director at Piaget, according to her LinkedIn.
Prior to that, she served as watches and fine jewelry director and then the worldwide head of high jewelry and high watchmaking sales at Louis Vuitton. She also worked at Leviev for a time.
In her new role, Assimon will work to develop the brand globally while expanding its product offerings to appeal to a wider variety of consumer.
“With her exceptional business track record, broad experience of the jewelry market and global luxury brands, she is the ideal person to lead the company to the next stage of its journey to becoming a global luxury brand,” board chairman Elmar Wiederin said.
De Grisogono has been reorganizing since disappointing sales led the company to lay off a number of employees last spring.
When it announced the cuts, the company also said it was going to scale back production capacity to reflect the atmosphere and focus on more affordable fine jewelry, a move that echoes Piaget’s foray into friendlier price points during Assimon’s tenure.
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