MILAN – Laura Burdese is set to become Bulgari’s new chief executive officer on July 1, succeeding Jean-Christophe Babin. She was named deputy CEO in July last year.
Babin will remain chairman of the Bulgari board, CEO of the Bulgari Hotel business unit, and president of the Bulgari Foundation, reporting to Stéphane Bianchi, LVMH group managing director and CEO of LVMH Watches & Jewelry. Bulgari has been controlled by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton since 2011.
“I am very proud of this smooth transition from one great leader to another,” said Bianchi, underscoring that the two executives have worked together for the past three years “to sustain and orchestrate the brand elevation of the iconic Roman jewelry maison. The nomination of Laura, while opening a new chapter for Bulgari, is a tribute to her strong contribution and accomplishments. Jean-Christophe has shaped the success of TAG Heuer and Bulgari while creating unique paths within their respective industries. I am confident that in his new missions, he will bring the same energy and keep on supporting LVMH and its maisons thanks to his extraordinary vision.”
Burdese, who will also report to Bianchi, joined the LVMH Group in October 2016, as president and CEO of Acqua di Parma, before joining Bulgari in 2022 as vice president of marketing and communications.
Burdese started her career in the beauty industry, holding brand management positions at Beiersdorf and L’Oréal.
In 1999, she joined the Swatch Group as marketing director Italy. In 2001, she was appointed brand director of Calvin Klein Watch & Jewelry, and was named country manager for the Swatch Group’s Italian subsidiary five years later. In 2012, in addition to this role, she was named president and CEO of Calvin Klein Watch & Jewelry Co. Ltd.
Jean-Christophe Babin
Babin was named CEO of Bulgari in 2013, succeeding Michael Burke. He was previously CEO of Tag Heuer, which he had joined in 2000, and was instrumental in advancing Bulgari’s watchmaking segment. Bulgari in 2024 received the inaugural WWD Honor for Watch Brand of the Year for the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC, the thinnest mechanical watch in the world launched at Watches and Wonders in Geneva.
A graduate of HEC Business School in Paris, he started his career in 1983 at Procter & Gamble in France in a variety of commercial and marketing roles, going on to work for Benckiser and Henkel in Italy.
In March, Babin, while retaining his position at Bulgari, was appointed CEO of LVMH Watches, overseeing such watchmakers as Hublot, Zenith and TAG Heuer. He succeeded Frédéric Arnault, who was named CEO of Loro Piana. Babin created the Geneva Watch Days during the pandemic with 66 exhibiting brands in 2025.
Burdese has flanked Babin in the expansion of the new production facility in Valenza, inaugurated in April, which the latter proudly said is now the largest single-brand jewelry manufacturing site in the world, claiming that Bulgari is the only jeweler globally that produces its jewels entirely in its country of origin. The facility comprises the new Scuola Bulgari, the first publicly accessible Bulgari training school focused on jewelry, and it joins the existing Bulgari Jewelry Academy, opened in 2017.
Bulgari has been raising the visibility of its high jewelry collections by holding experiential events and fashion shows in Venice, Rome in 2024, paying tribute to the jeweler’s 140th anniversary, and in Taormina, Sicily, in May, among others, attracting the likes of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Anne Hathaway, longtime Bulgari house ambassadors, Zendaya, and Blackpink’s Lisa.
Under Babin’s watch, Bulgari has expanded the number of its luxury hotels to nine, including in its hometown of Rome, Paris, and Tokyo to name a few, and others are scheduled in Miami and Los Angeles.
