Updated 4:47 p.m. ET on March 17
PARIS — Jose Manuel Albesa has been appointed chief executive officer of Puig, effective Tuesday, after having served as the group’s deputy CEO.
Marc Puig, chairman and CEO of the Spanish beauty and fashion powerhouse since 2004, is to remain as the company’s executive chairman.
Succession has been under consideration over the past few years.
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“The board felt at this point it was wise to separate the chairmanship and CEO [role], and for me to take the executive chairman position after many years leading this company,” Marc Puig said. “It was time to pass the baton to someone like Jose Manuel, who has been in the company since 1998 and with whom I have worked directly for the last 22 years.”
Marc Puig has long said that the next — or fourth — generation of Puig family members will not run the company, but be on the group’s governing body. The last time a non-family member ran Puig was in the early 2000s.
Puig outlined his responsibilities as executive chairman. “I will be working together with Jose Manuel on aligning the strategy and the main bets that we take going forward,” Puig said, explaining he will be more involved in M&A.
“We believe there is an advantage to having family members involved in that part of the strategy,” Puig said, adding he will be the custodian of the Puig family values. “I will work with Jose Manuel to support him in making sure that the key appointments are aligned with our values.”
Albesa is now responsible for everything else at the company. The executive said he and Marc Puig are very close and that the changeover is a continuity of what they built together.
“We have a very successful track record,” Albesa said. “We have been growing faster than any other company in the premium beauty market for the last five years.”
On Tuesday, Puig also appointed Miquel Angel Serra the company’s new chief financial officer. The former CFO, Joan Albiol, is to remain secretary of the board of directors with legal and M&A functions. In that role, Albiol reports to Marc Puig. Serra, who had been vice president, corporate controlling and investor relations at Puig, reports to Albesa.
Executives reporting to him largely remain the same.
“I am very excited and very honored to lead this successional team,” Albesa said, adding he will maintain the legacy the Puig family started three generations ago. “For me it’s something very important, and to reinforce the values of the company, the entrepreneurship, the creativity, the agility, the audacity is part of this new journey that I will continue very close to Marc going forward.”
Albesa is proud of Puig’s portfolio, which includes brands such as Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier, Charlotte Tilbury and Byredo. “We want to continue growing organically,” he said. “The focus on organic growth is very important for us, and to do it profitably.”
Albesa aims for Puig to keep outpacing the market year-on-year.
“The world is changing. We have been very successful in the past, but we have to continue being successful for the future,” he said. “So renewing this formula of success is also a very important priority.”
Albesa will be proposed as a member of the Puig board at the company’s annual general meeting in May.
In September 2025, he had been appointed to the-then newly created role of deputy CEO of Puig, in charge of all divisions at the group. He remained president of Puig beauty and fashion, too. In that job, Albesa had been reporting to Marc Puig and tasked with driving the group’s vision and strategy across the business.
Puig at the time attested to the executive’s passion and deep understanding of the company’s story. Albesa was lauded as an exceptionally talented brand-builder and leader essential to the group’s transformation to becoming a global premium beauty player. He was instrumental in repositioning Rabanne, Carolina Herrera and Jean Paul Gaultier, transforming them into three of the world’s top-10 fragrance brands.
Albesa joined Puig in 1998 and has held senior leadership roles spanning brand development, marketing and operations. The executive has played a key role in the strategic development and international expansion of the company’s fragrance and fashion portfolio, as well.
Puig, which went public in July 2024 in Spain, has been clocking healthy growth. In 2025, the company’s net profit reached 594 million euros, up 11.9 percent versus 2024, while net sales surpassed the 5-billion-euro mark for the first time. They came in at 5.04 billion euros, representing a 5.3 percent gain in reported terms and 7.8 percent on a like-for-like basis.
The organic growth was at the top end of Puig’s guidance for 2025, of 6 percent to 8 percent, and outperformed the market.
Puig last year completed its former five-year strategic plan announced in early 2021. That set the goal to double the company’s 2020 sales in three years and triple them in five. Puig exceeded the goals, more than doubling sales by 2022 and more than tripling them by 2025.