John Hardy has named luxury goods executive Frédéric “Fred” Levy (pictured) its new CEO.
Levy replaces Kareem Gahed, the brand’s CEO since 2019. Levy is John Hardy’s third CEO since private equity firm Catterton Partners bought the business in 2014. In 2016, Catterton merged with LVMH’s investment arm to become L Catterton.
“L Catterton believes there is significant opportunity for the John Hardy brand globally, and we are confident that Fred is the right leader to guide the company through its next phase of growth,” said J. Michael Chu, global co-CEO of L Catterton and chairman of the John Hardy board, in a statement.
Last April, Bloomberg and WWD reported that L Catterton had put the brand up for sale. L Catterton was seeking $200 million for the brand, Bloomberg said.
Levy has two decades’ experience in the luxury and branding, though this position is apparently his first time working in jewelry. From October 2020 to November 2022, he served as president of the international business unit of Alpargatas Group, the footwear company, where he developed its e-commerce and digital strategy.
Prior to that, Levy served as president and CEO of Coravin, the wine preservation system, from 2015 to 2020. Before that, he spent nine years as president of espresso machine company Nespresso USA.
In September, Reed Krakoff, the former chief artistic officer of Tiffany & Co. and president of Coach, was appointed John Hardy’s creative chairman, as well as a strategic adviser to L Catterton. The deal made Krakoff a minority equity stakeholder in John Hardy.
In 2021, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky looked at how storytelling was playing a role in the brand’s direct-to-consumer strategy.
Photo courtesy of Coravin
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