EXCLUSIVE: Acqua di Parma Names Giulio Bergamaschi as New CEO

Sandra Salibian
·2 min read

MILAN — Acqua di Parma has named Giulio Bergamaschi its new chief executive officer, WWD has learned.

Effective Tuesday, Bergamaschi succeeds Laura Burdese, who at the end of 2021 left her post as president and CEO of the Italian beauty company to join fellow LVMH-controlled firm Bulgari as vice president of marketing and communication and member of the executive committee.

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In between appointments, Stéphanie Medioni, executive president of LVMH Beauty, was supervising the Acqua di Parma. In his new role, Bergamaschi will report directly to Medioni.

A 2004 graduate of Milan’s Bocconi University, Bergamaschi joined L’Oréal that same year. In his 18-year career at the company, he built a solid expertise in product development and communication and covered international and strategic roles, such as global brand president of Biotherm and general manager of L’Oréal Paris DMI in China.

In April 2022, Bergamaschi joined LVMH as strategic missions director for Loro Piana. Over the last year, his contribution at the label has been focused on brand strategy and textile excellences’ valorization through enhanced client experience and transparency initiatives, like the traceability digital certification with Aura Blockchain Consortium.

“Giulio is a seasoned and passionate beauty professional and leader. His deep sense of international markets and knowledge of the beauty category are critical assets for Acqua di Parma and the division,” Medioni said in a statement, adding that the new executive “will further elevate the Maison uniqueness and position as worldwide promoter of Italian lifestyle and craftsmanship.”

The brand is best known for its fragrances, namely its successful Colonia pillar boasting more than a century of history. In 1916, Baron Carlo Magnani was in search of a different fragrance and commissioned a perfume artisan in the Italian town of Parma to create a cologne, which resulted in the original Colonia.

Offered in an Art Deco glass bottle, the scent rose to popularity in the 1930s and gained international success in the ’50s, when bespoke tailors used to spritz the fragrance on made-to-measure suits before handing them to their high-end clientele, including Hollywood actors of the time.

The label’s aristocratic heritage was strengthened through the years as the company started to build on its Italian lifestyle and understated luxury image by introducing new colonias; the “Collezione Barbiere” line of shaving products; the “Blue Mediterraneo” and “Blue Mediterraneo Italian Resort” fragrances and cosmetics inspired by exclusive locations on the Italian Mediterranean; home fragrances, and leather accessories, among other products.

The Colonia fragrance remains at the core of key developments and special projects by the company, including the most recent collaboration with A-Cold-Wall’s founder Samuel Ross and its design studio SR_A.

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