Catherine Renier was appointed CEO of jaeger-LeCoultre in May 2017, becoming the first woman to lead JLC, and just the second female chief executive to head one of Richemont’s vast portfolio of brands (Chabi Nouri was the first, becoming Piaget’s chief executive in April 2017).
Getting more woman in leadership roles has been a key goal of Richemont head Johann Rupert, who remarked in 2016 that the conglomerate had “too few women” in senior roles and wanted fewer “grey men” running its companies.
The New York Times ran a profile of Ms. Renier, who has been with Richemont since 1999, and served as the president of Van Cleef & Arpels’ Asia pacific division before being appointed to the role of JLC CEO. She’s now the head of JLC’s 1200-person operation in Switzerland’s Vallee de Joux.
She’s identified JLC’s lack of communicating the fine watchmaking skills of this large operation as a major challenge, and JLC has launched its “The Art of Precision” campaign at SIHH 2019 to begin to better communicate the craftsmanship that goes into each of its timepieces.
To read the full profile, head to the New York Times.