Asos’ Nick Beighton to Replace Paolo De Cesare as Matchesfashion CEO
LONDON — Matchesfashion is set to welcome its fourth chief executive officer in five years as it prepares to name Nick Beighton, who spent much of his career at fast-fashion giant Asos, to the top job.
WWD has learned that Beighton will succeed Paolo De Cesare, who joined Matchesfashion less than a year ago, as CEO.
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Apax Partners, Matchesfashion’s private equity owner, could not be reached for comment at press time.
The past five years has seen a revolving door of CEOs at the London-based luxury e-tailer.
Matchesfashion was acquired in September 2017 by Apax Partners at a reported valuation of $1 billion after a bidding frenzy by a number of private equity investors, including Permira and KKR.
Not long after, Apax sent Ulric Jerome, the CEO hired by Matches founders Tom and Ruth Chapman, packing, and replaced him with an Amazon executive Ajay Kavan.
Kavan himself made a surprise exit after just 12 months on the job, and former Printemps CEO De Cesare, who took over last September, also didn’t last very long.
According to industry sources, Apax now wants another change of direction with someone more focused on digital, once again.
Beighton stepped down last fall as CEO of Asos, having transformed the e-commerce platform into a 4 billion pound operation.
Beighton joined Asos in 2009 as chief financial officer and had worked closely with his predecessor Nick Robertson, Asos’ cofounder. In his years at Asos, Beighton also served as the company’s chief operating officer.
De Cesare had been making big strides at Matchesfashion. When he arrived, the company was notching double-digit declines. It is now posting growth in the mid-teens.
He’s done away with discounting, and put the focus on full-price sales, occasionwear and immersive events for customers.
When De Cesare was appointed last year, Tom Hall, partner at Apax Partners and member of the board at Matchesfashion, said that De Cesare’s “understanding of luxury, his energy and enthusiasm, and his long and varied experience as a senior executive around the globe make him ideally suited for the role. We are very much looking forward to working with him.”
As WWD reported last year, Matchesfashion had focused its CEO search within fashion and retail to find an industry insider who understood the business, the power of the brand, and the importance of differentiation in a crowded and competitive market where size and scale matter.
De Cesare is best known for overseeing extensive, multiyear renovations of Printemps’ Boulevard Haussmann flagship.
He was also in charge of an overall upscaling drive at the French retailer, a plan set in motion following the acquisition of the store in 2013 by Divine Investments SA, a Luxembourg-based investment fund backed by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former emir of Qatar.
De Cesare joined Printemps in 2007. From 2016 to 2020, he also served as president of the International Group of Department Stores, the largest industry association of global department stores.
Board member Maureen Chiquet said that as Matchesfashion’s CEO, de Cesare’s “record of transforming Printemps into a true luxury institution, as well as his many years as a president at Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest consumer goods company, make this an excellent appointment for the business. His arrival marks an exciting chapter in the company’s journey, and I look forward to supporting him as I return to my position on the board.”
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