Tiffany & Co. announced Thursday that the company’s board of directors has elected a new chairman, current board member Roger Farah, effective Oct. 2.
Farah will take over the role from Michael J. Kowalski, who’s served as Tiffany’s chairman since 2002 and was CEO of Tiffany & Co. from 1999–2015. Kowalski came out of retirement to reassume the CEO role (on an interim basis) after Frederic Cumenal, who served in the role for just under two years, abruptly departed in February 2017.
Farah, 64, has been a Tiffany & Co. board member since March 2017 and has served in top roles at Ralph Lauren Corporation (where as chief operating officer he was credited with quadrupling sales), Venator Group, Inc., R.H. Macy & Co. Inc., and Federated Merchandising Services.
He occupies one of three new board seats filled by executives Tiffany minority stakeholder Jana Partners handpicked earlier this year (Francesco Trapani and James Lillie are the other two).
Kowalski will relinquish his interim CEO and chairman titles in October, when the company’s new CEO, Alessandro Bogliolo, joins the company, but will remain a director for the company.
Kowalski said in the statement, “Roger has significant experience as a leader in the luxury retail industry, and I and my fellow directors value tremendously his expertise and insight, which have been apparent during his time on the board. With the appointment of Alessandro as our new CEO, and under Roger’s leadership on the board, I believe we are well positioned to execute on strategies to drive comparable store sales growth and stronger earnings growth in the longer-term.”
(Top: Tiffany & Co.’s 5th Avenue flagship store in NYC, courtesy of Tiffany & Co.)
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