Richemont adds Anton Rupert as co-deputy chairman in a succession move
Richemont has split its deputy-chairman role in two, adding Anton Rupert — who shares his surname with the group's chairman — to oversee the Maisons' creative and product direction at Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, Japan's two biggest hard-luxury jewellery houses, while his co-chair keeps the governance brief.
Richemont, the Swiss luxury group behind Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre, has appointed Anton Rupert as a non-executive co-deputy chairman of its board, effective immediately following the board's meeting on 8 September, the company said in a statement carried on GlobeNewswire, its usual disclosure channel. Rupert shares his surname with Richemont's chairman, Johann Rupert.
Rupert joins Bram Schot, who has held the deputy chairmanship since 2024 and now becomes non-executive co-deputy chairman alongside him, splitting what had been a single role in two, per the release. The two co-chairs take different briefs: Rupert will oversee the Maisons' Strategic Product and Communications Committee, which the release describes as central to the group's "creative and commercial direction," while Schot is responsible for board and committee governance.
"Richemont's strength has always rested on the continuity that comes from close family involvement, on rigorous governance, and on an unwavering commitment to creativity and craftsmanship," Johann Rupert said in the statement announcing the move, which he described as "an important step in the Board's long-term succession planning."
The appointment carries no immediate operational change for Richemont's businesses in Japan, where Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the two largest hard-luxury jewellery houses on department-store and flagship floors from Ginza to Omotesando. But the split brief is itself the signal: by ring-fencing product and creative continuity in one co-chair and governance in the other, Richemont is telling the market — and, implicitly, its Maisons' retail partners — that a change at the top of its board is not expected to disturb the creative pipeline those partners build multi-year store investments around.