Published
September 15, 2025
Luca de Meo seems intent on reshuffling the deck at Kering. At the French luxury group’s annual general meeting in September, the new Italian boss, who joins from Renault, took a straight line to express his vision. The new roadmap will be announced in early 2026, but he and his team will be making adjustments before the end of the year, he explained.
Francesca Bellettini – Kering
An understatement. Luca de Meo is due to officially take up his post this Monday at the Paris headquarters of the parent company of Gucci, Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, McQueen, Boucheron and Balenciaga, and has already begun the big maneuvers.
According to WWD and Miss Tweed, Francesca Bellettini, the former CEO of Saint-Laurent, who has been Kering’s Deputy CEO in charge of house development since September 2023, will be in charge of the group’s core business. In this role, all the group’s general managers now report to her. Within the management committee, which was headed by François-Henri Pinault (who remains chairman of the Board as of September 15), Jean-Marc Duplaix was the other deputy managing director, in charge of operations.
This appointment to Gucci’s general management, if confirmed, would imply the departure of Stefano Cantino. Recruited from Louis Vuitton in May 2024 as deputy CEO of Kering’s flagship fashion house, which was then headed by Jean-François Palus, Cantino took over as CEO of Gucci on January 1. If these changes are confirmed, the Italian will have held the reins of the Roman house for only nine months.
For Bellettini, this potential move would be a major challenge, as de Meo has made no secret of the urgent need to turn around the group’s flagship, which accounts for some 40% of global sales in the first half of 2025, as much as a return to its roots. Having been with the group for over twenty years, the Italian executive initially joined Gucci in 2003, where she was director of strategic planning and associate director of merchandising, before transferring to Bottega Veneta and then helping Saint-Laurent grow, first at the end of the Slimane era and then with Anthony Vaccarello.
Media reports announcing this change of challenge for the director suggest that these moves could be made official at the beginning of the week.
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