Educated at some of the french capital's most prestigious schools (Lycée Chaptal, Sciences Po Paris), Stéphane Bianchi is a man who knows how to rise to the occasion. Rather than following well-trod paths, he is among those who build their career by seizing opportunities and taking up challenges.
After four years in consulting, Bianchi became Chairman and CEO of Petit Bateau, where he stayed for another four years. The next stage in his career took him to Brazil, where he served as local director for Yves Rocher, before becoming the group’s CEO for 17 years. This broad, worldwide experience prepared him for a move to Switzerland and a new challenge: joining Maus Frères as a member of the board. The historic, family-owned Swiss firm provided Stéphane Bianchi with four more years of experience before putting down deeper roots in Switzerland, by joining LVMH’s watchmaking division as CEO, taking over from Jean-Claude Biver.
In November 2018, he also accepted the position of CEO at TAG Heuer, where he joined Frédéric Arnault, the young son of LVMH’s owner, who had been with the firm since 2017, with a particular focus on digital technologies. For two years, Stéphane Bianchi and Frédéric Arnault worked side by side to enable a gradual handover of the La Chaux-de-Fonds Manufacture to the younger man, completed at the end of June 2020 – whereupon Stéphane Bianchi took on the role of CEO of LVMH’s Watches & Jewelry division.
*On the occasion of GMT Magazine and WorldTempus' 20th anniversary, we have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the last 20 years in watchmaking in The Millennium Watch Book, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. This article is an extract. The Millennium Watch Book is available on www.the-watch-book.com, in French and English, with a 10% discount if you use the following code: WT2021.
