MILAN (Reuters) – Italian luxury goods group Prada is set to hire former Luxottica Chief Executive Andrea Guerra in a senior management role to ease a transition at the helm to the next generation of the founding family, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Current Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli, 76, has said he will hand over the reins of the group he leads with wife and designer Miuccia Prada to their 34-year-old son Lorenzo.
To smooth the passage the group has been looking to bring in an external manager, a second person close to the matter said.
Prada is close to finalising the accord with Guerra to hire the 57-year-old manager, who earlier this year stepped down as head of the hotels division at luxury goods giant LVMH, the first source said.
Both Prada and Guerra declined to comment on the news.
Italian daily la Repubblica first reported the news that Prada could announce Guerra’s arrival as early as in January.
“We believe Guerra would add invaluable experience and significant gravitas to the Prada senior management team,” broker Jefferies said in a note, adding the market would welcome the news given the group was initiating a phase of succession.
Bertelli had said a year ago Lorenzo, who is the group’s marketing chief, would succeed him in three years’ time.
(Reporting by Valentina Za, Claudia Cristoferi and Cristina Carlevaro; Editing by Agnieszka Flak and Jan Harvey)
