Vestiaire Collective appoints new CEO
Vestiaire Collective has appointed Maximilian Bittner as CEO; he joins the business on 1 January 2019 taking over from founder and current CEO Sébastian Fabre who will remain a director and who will continue to play a key role in the strategic director of the luxury resale site.
Bittner is the founder of Lazada Group, Southeast Asia’s leading ecommerce company. Launched in 2012, Lazada is present in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and offers exposure and market access to over 155,000 merchants, 3,000 brands and 300 million SKUs. Over 2016 and 2017 Alibaba acquired a majority stake in the business whose latest valuation was $3.15bn.
He began his career at Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking division in London prior to joining McKinsey & Company and then Rocket Internet in Germany. He graduated with a degree in Economics and History from the University College of London and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
Fabre said that having led the company for 10 years and seeing its revenue increase seven-fold he felt it was time to "introduce a new structure to take our company to the next level and accelerate its international development, with a focus on Asia, one of our key markets. I’m delighted to hand the reigns to Maximilian Bittner who brings his considerable experience and in-depth knowledge of Asian markets to Vestiaire Collective. As Director, I’ll continue to work closely with Maximilian and Vestiaire Collective."
Bittner added: “I’d like to thank Sébastien Fabre, who together with Vestiaire Collective’s teams, has made the company the uncontested European leader and a top global player. I’m delighted to join this wonderful adventure and am looking forward to seizing, together with Vestiaire Collective’s teams, the considerable growth opportunities in the pre-owned luxury fashion market, particularly in the United States and Asia following the company’s recent successful launch.”
Vestiaire Collective launched in Paris in 2009 and has amassed 7m customers. It has offices in Paris, London, New York, Milan, Berlin and Hong Kong and more than 30,000 new items are submitted by its community of sellers every week.
