Editor’s Note
This article outlines a significant leadership transition at Bulgari, with Laura Burdese set to become CEO while Jean-Christophe Babin moves to focus on his other roles within the company and the wider LVMH group.
Bulgari has appointed Laura Burdese as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective July 1 of next year. Laura Burdese, who was appointed Vice Chairman last July, succeeds Jean-Christophe Babin.
Jean-Christophe Babin will retain his positions as Chairman of the Bulgari Board of Directors, CEO of the Bulgari Hotels division, and Chairman of the Bulgari Foundation. Jean-Christophe Babin will report to Stéphane Bianchi, Managing Director of LVMH Group and CEO of the Watches & Jewelry division. Bulgari has been part of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group since 2011.
Laura Burdese joined the LVMH Group in 2016, serving as Chairman and CEO of Acqua di Parma. She moved to Bulgari in 2022, overseeing the Marketing and Communications divisions.
She began her career gaining brand management experience at Beiersdorf and L’Oréal. She joined the Swatch Group in 1999, serving as Italian Marketing Director, and was appointed Brand Director for Calvin Klein Watches & Jewelry in 2001. Later, after serving as Country Manager for Swatch Group Italy, she took on the roles of CEO and Chairman of Calvin Klein Watches & Jewelry in 2012.
Jean-Christophe Babin was appointed CEO of Bulgari in 2013, succeeding Michael Burke. Having served as CEO at Tag Heuer since 2000, he played a key role in strategically expanding Bulgari’s watchmaking division. Bulgari won the ‘Watch Brand of the Year’ award selected by WWD with the ‘Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC’ unveiled at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2024. This is the world’s thinnest watch.
A graduate of HEC Paris, Jean-Christophe Babin began his career in 1983 at Procter & Gamble France, later working at Benckiser and Henkel in Italy. In March of this year, while retaining his position as Bulgari CEO, he was appointed CEO of the LVMH Watches division, overseeing Hublot, Zenith, and Tag Heuer. Additionally, Jean-Christophe Babin founded ‘Geneva Watch Days’ during the pandemic, growing it into an event with 66 participating brands by 2025.
Laura Burdese also closely collaborated with Jean-Christophe Babin during the expansion of the new Valenza production facility, which opened this April. Jean-Christophe Babin introduced this as the world’s largest jewelry manufacturing facility for a single brand, emphasizing that Bulgari is the only jeweler in the world that produces all its jewelry domestically. The facility includes a public jewelry education institution, ‘Scuola Bulgari,’ which operates alongside the Bulgari Jewelry Academy established in 2017.
To strengthen the presence of its high jewelry collections, Bulgari has held large-scale events and shows in Venice, Rome (commemorating its 140th anniversary in 2024), and Taormina, Sicily this May. Attendees included Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, and BLACKPINK’s Lisa.
During Jean-Christophe Babin’s tenure, Bulgari expanded into a brand operating a total of nine luxury hotels, including locations in Rome, Paris, and Tokyo, with new hotels set to open in Miami and Los Angeles.
