Luxembourg, 12th November 2018 – Global Fashion Group (“GFG”), the leading online fashion and lifestyle destination for global growth markets, has announced the appointment of new Chief Executive Officers for its regional businesses, THE ICONIC (Australasia) and ZALORA (Southeast Asia).
Erica Berchtold has been named as the incoming CEO for THE ICONIC and will join in early 2019 from one of Australasia’s largest retailers, Super Retail Group, where she currently serves as Managing Director of the Sports Division. Gunjan Soni has been named as the incoming CEO for ZALORA and will join in early 2019 from India’s largest fashion e-commerce company, Myntra, where she currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer and head of the Jabong business.
Both Gunjan and Erica will take over their roles from Patrick Schmidt, who has served as CEO of THE ICONIC since 2013, and as Interim CEO of ZALORA since 2018. Patrick will continue to serve as Co-CEO of GFG.
Patrick Schmidt and Christoph Barchewitz, Co-CEOs of GFG, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Erica and Gunjan to Global Fashion Group. Both bring significant experience within our industry and markets to their new roles and we look forward to working with them as we capture the vast market potential in Australasia and Southeast Asia.”
Erica Berchtold, incoming CEO for THE ICONIC, said: “I am absolutely honoured to be joining THE ICONIC, one of the most dynamic, fastest growing fashion retailers across Australia and New Zealand. With a laser-focus on customer experience, the team has done an amazing job evolving the brand and it will be fantastic working with them to take the business to even greater heights. I’m humbled to be given this opportunity, accept it with two-hands and can’t wait to get started.”
Gunjan Soni, incoming CEO for ZALORA, said: “I am very excited to be joining Zalora and the GFG leadership team. It is truly a huge privilege to lead Zalora which is already a leading fashion and sports destination at a time when Southeast Asian markets are poised for increasing fashion and e-commerce consumption. When I see Zalora, I see a company with huge potential to shape the future of fashion commerce in one of the most exciting markets globally! This makes it both exciting and humbling to take on this role.”
GFG welcomes the new CEOs to its dedicated global team as it, along with its shareholders, evaluates various financing options, including a potential IPO, to fund the continued growth of the business.
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About Global Fashion Group
Global Fashion Group (“GFG”) is the leading online destination for fashion and lifestyle dedicated to global growth markets. We deliver a world-class online shopping experience to consumers in traditionally underserved markets, offering them over 8,000 international and local brands, alongside our own private labels. GFG operates four branded platforms across four continents: Dafiti (LatAm), Lamoda (Russia / CIS), THE ICONIC (Australasia) and ZALORA (Southeast Asia). GFG additionally holds a joint venture stake in Namshi (Middle East). By connecting our customers and brands via an end-to-end value chain, we are the go-to destination for aspirational consumers who demand fast, flexible and reliable service. In the last twelve months to 30 June 2018, GFG shipped over 29 million orders to over 10 million active customers, with a Net Merchandise Value of over €1bn. GFG is well-placed to further develop its strong positions in the most attractive global growth markets and capture substantial long-term growth.
For more information, visit http://global-fashion-group.com/
About Erica Berchtold
Erica brings almost 20 years of leadership experience in the Australian retail sector with demonstrated expertise in building online channels for incumbent retailers. At Super Retail Group, Erica was instrumental in driving strong business growth, whilst scaling employee and customer engagement. In addition to her Managing Director role, Erica was a member of the Super Retail Group Executive Team. Prior to joining Super Retail Group, Erica held several senior management positions including General Manager of two women’s apparel businesses for Specialty Fashion Group, General Manager of Merchandise & Marketing for Rebel Sport and National Product Management roles at Harvey Norman.
About Gunjan Soni
Gunjan brings over 13 years of leadership experience in marketing, strategy and operations with a passion for building new age consumer businesses. At Myntra Gunjan has been instrumental in firmly positioning the brand as a leader in fashion and lifestyle and leading the turnaround of the Jabong business post acquisition. Prior to joining Myntra, Gunjan was Executive Vice President for Strategy and CEO Office with Star India. Gunjan spent a large part of her career at McKinsey where she was a Partner and worked across multiple consumer sectors and geographies including UK, Singapore and Bhutan. She is credited to have started McKinsey’s Scientific Marketing practice for India. She is a recognised leader in the business ecosystem having featured in Spencer Stuart-Economic Times young leaders 40 under 40 list, Fortune India 40 under 40, Impact India – Most Influential women leaders in Media list and others.
