I just got the confirmation that the former TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Christophe Babin will be the new CEO of Bulgari. Please read the details here …

This is the official statetemnt:

Group Internal Announcement

APPOINTMENT at BVLGARI

 LVMH announces the appointment of Jean-Christophe Babin as Chief Executive Officer (Amministratore Delegato) of Bulgari which belongs to the Watch and Jewelry Division of LVMH headed by Francesco Trapani.

Jean-Christophe Babin will take over the position in Rome in the course of the first semester.

A graduate of the HEC Business School (Paris), Jean-Christophe Babin has dual French and Italian nationality. He started his career in 1983 in sales and marketing positions, successively at Procter & Gamble in France, and at Benckiser and Henkel in Italy. In 2000, he joined LVMH as CEO of Tag Heuer. For 13 years under his leadership, Tag Heuer has demonstrated a remarkable development.

This is my personal comment:

There were a lot of rumors around for quite a long time and no one could believe that Jean-Christophe would really do this. Why changing from the very successful TAG Heuer to Bulgari. All the success TAG Heuer has today the in La Chaux-de-Fonds based manufacturer has due to Jean-Christophe Babin. Jean-Christophe did a very good job; he had clear vision and a good strategy. TAG Heuer is still developing strong and there is still a lot to do. So why should one change to Bulgari? I can only assume for good money  and a very clear career offer later at LVMH …

Of course the relatively weak brand Bulgari (in comparison to what Bulgari could have achieved …) needs a strong CEO to get back to the top. But now with Swatch Group just having bought Harry Winston there will be very tough competition on the very lucrative market of jewelry. For both, LVMH and Swatch Group, the starting situation is almost the same. They both have a real pearl in their portfolio and both pearls strongly need to be revitalized, need to get much more sex-appeal …

The only thing I can guess is that Jean-Christophe got a real good offer to do a very hard job. For me it is not obvious that he will succeed, not due to the fact that he is not able to do the job, but due to the fact that Bulgari needs to be more or less reinvented to really be successful.

It is not clear yet who will follow Jean-Christophe Babin at TAG Heuer. In my opinion for LVMH it is imperative now to choose someone internal from the brand, someone who knows TAG Heuer for years… Jean-Christophe had become Mr. TAG Heuer in the last years and it will not be easy to follow him. Anyhow my opinion does not count and so you never know what headquarters will decide in the end…

Good luck my friend Jean-Christophe! Ci vediamo a Roma …

These are some actual and older pictures that show Jean-Christophe Babin at work …

Jean-Christophe Babin and Cameron Diaz

… and another one with beloved Cameron …

Jean-Christophe Babin and Leonardo DiCaprio

Jean-Christophe Babin and Kimi Räikkönen

Jean-Christophe Babin and Ron Dennis

Jack Heuer, Lewis Hamilton and Jean-Christophe Babin

Jean-Christophe Babin