Retail in Asia

In People

Global Fashion Group rejigs management

Global Fashion Group (GFG) has unveiled a new leadership transition, as part of e-commerce company’s next phase of development, as it homes in on Southeast Asia (SEA) and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) markets.

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Effective March 1, Christoph Barchewitz will become sole CEO, as Patrick Schmidt steps down as co-CEO, after five years of co-leadership.

Schmidt is leaving GFG after 10 years, to spend more time with his young family and on his investments in renewables. The executive has played a key role in building GFG into a leading fashion e-commerce business: first as CEO of GFG’s ANZ region, where he established The Iconic as the leading fashion e-commerce company in the region, and championed the introduction of the sustainability strategy, which is now a key business priority across GFG. He also initiated the turnaround of GFG’s SEA region, as interim Zalora CEO.

In the last five years as co-CEO, Barchewitz has been instrumental in establishing the business as a leader in its markets and driving GFG to become a publicly listed company, together with Schmidt. As CEO, Barchewitz will be responsible for the executive management of the group across all three regions of operation and will oversee the ongoing strategic and operational evolution of the company in this next stage of its development.

In addition to the CEO reshuffle, Gunjan Soni has been appointed COO and will join the management board, in addition to her role as CEO of GFG’s southeast Asia business, Zalora. Soni will have the added responsibility of delivering the group’s strategic priorities by leveraging GFG’s technology capabilities, the company added.

Since joining GFG in 2019, Soni has led the transformation of Zalora to be a profitable and strongly differentiated player in a highly competitive SEA market.

“On behalf of the supervisory board, we would like to thank Patrick for 10 years of successful leadership and achievements across the group. We are sad to see him go and wish him all the very best for the future,” said Cynthia Gordon, chairman of the GFG supervisory board.

“We are delighted to appoint Christoph as CEO after 5 years of exemplary leadership which saw him transform GFG into the business it is today. We also want to congratulate and welcome Gunjan Soni as COO. Having their combined experience on the management board will strengthen and build on the GFG’s successes even further.”