Chief Operating Officer Karlheinz Baumann joins the Management Board

At the same time as the publication of its half-year results, Richemont has announced the promotion of Karlheinz Baumann. Appointed COO this year, the manager has been co-opted, with effect from November 10, to the management committee of the Swiss luxury giant, which owns the Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Chloé and Alaïa brands, among others. He joins the committee “as director of operations, in charge of manufacturing, research & innovation, customer service, logistics & supply chain, indirect purchasing, responsible sourcing and safety”.

The Swiss-German manager, who has twenty-seven years experience in the automotive and luxury goods sectors, where he has held mainly operational roles in production, research & development and supply chain, will continue to report to Richemont CEO Jérôme Lambert, the company said in a press release.

Karlheinz Baumann holds a master’s degree in physics from the Technical University of Munich, as well as an MBA from Kellogg University in Illinois, USA. He began his career in 1996 as a consultant with McKinsey in Munich, Germany, before moving to the automotive industry in 2003 to supervise German automotive supplier Wilhelm Karmann as executive director.

In 2008, he moved to Switzerland, where he joined Richemont. There, he spent eight years at watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen as director of operations. In 2016, the manager moved up within the Group, taking on the role of director of industry & services, before being promoted in 2023 to head of operations at Richemont.

“His experience and knowledge of the group will be crucial in driving forward the group’s decisions on the increasing digitalisation, flexibility and resilience of our operations, including manufacturing and distribution, particularly with regard to ‘Luxury New Retail’ (e-commerce platforms such as its YNAP site, editor’s note),” emphasised Richemont chairman Johann Rupert in a statement.