Dior’s Pietro Beccari to Become CEO of Louis Vuitton

Christian Dior Couture chief executive Pietro Beccari is set to succeed Michael Burke as CEO of Louis Vuitton, luxury fashion’s largest brand, sources familiar with the matter told BoF. An announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, one of the sources said.

Delphine Arnault, LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault’s eldest child and Vuitton’s executive vice president for product for 9 years, has also weighed taking on a new role, sources said, most likely at the Christian Dior label where she started her career at the group.

LVMH insiders have long seen Beccari as a potential successor to Burke, aged 65, who has led Louis Vuitton since 2012. The Italian executive rose to prominence in the luxury conglomerate leading Vuitton’s marketing efforts from 2006 to 2012 before star turns as CEO of its Fendi and Dior brands. Since Beccari joined Dior in 2018, the brand’s sales have roughly quadrupled to nearly €9 billion last year, according to HSBC estimates.

The news comes amid a broader changing of the guard at LVMH, as Bernard Arnault’s children take on key roles within the company and stalwarts in the group’s tight circle of trusted managers approach retirement. In December it was also announced that Arnault’s second child, Antoine, would replace Sidney Toledano as CEO of the Christian Dior SE holding company through which the family owns its controlling stake in LVMH.

Sales at Vuitton expanded rapidly under Burke, one of Arnault’s most trusted lieutenants. Working with designers including Nicolas Ghesquière, Kim Jones and Virgil Abloh, Burke energised and elevated the brand, reducing its dependence on monogrammed canvas by boosting sales of more sophisticated leather bags like the Capucine and Twist styles.

In 2018, Vuitton became the first luxury fashion brand to surpass €10 billion in annual sales. Since the coronavirus pandemic, revenues have accelerated sharply, reaching an estimated €20.6 billion last year, according to HSBC.

In recent months, the brand has flexed its newfound scale with bigger-than-ever marketing coups: it recently recruited rival football superstars Messi and Ronaldo to appear together in a World Cup campaign, and staged massive installations at flagship stores around the world to celebrate its collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

That’s not to mention the house’s multidisciplinary tributes to late menswear designer Abloh, which have featured performances by dance troupes, marching bands, chamber orchestras and rap stars Tyler the Creator and Kendrick Lamar.

The pending management shakeup could be one reason the brand has been slow to name a replacement for Abloh, who died suddenly in 2021.

After leading marketing at Vuitton, Beccari took the reins at Fendi, where he elevated perception of the Roman fur and leather house while retooling its marketing and product offer to appeal to younger consumers.

His 2018 move to Dior was part of one of the biggest executive shuffles in the history of LVMH. There, the executive worked with designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Kim Jones to create a more consistent, wearable and youthful Dior, with deft merchandising that saw the business grow to previously unimagined scale. Hit products like the Book tote, Bobby camera bag and relaunched Saddle helped Dior reduced its dependence on the flagship Lady Dior style. The brand also worked to rebalance geographies, reactivating regions like the U.S. and Europe where its market share had previously slipped while pursuing rapid growth in China.

The executive has a particular flair for creating immersive brand hubs that combine fashion, food, hospitality, art installations and craftsmanship demonstrations, as well as staging memorable marketing spectacles, such as Fendi’s 2016 “haute fourrure” show at the Trevi fountain (where models appeared to walk on water) or Dior’s 2021 recreation of an iconic photoshoot at the Acropolis in Athens.

Stay tuned to BoF for updates on this developing story.

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