LONDON — Kim Winser, the new president and chief executive of the luxury British clothing brand Aquascutum, has beefed up her executive team and given them worldwide responsibilities.
Winser, who joined the company earlier this year, has tapped two of her former colleagues at Pringle of Scotland for positions on Aquascutum’s executive director board.
Susie Murray has become director of global wholesale sales and country licensing director, while Charlotte Thomas has been named global communications director. The positions are new ones, and both Murray and Thomas will report directly to Winser when they begin work officially on Sept. 4.
Murray, formerly head of sales at Pringle and most recently a senior executive at Elie Tahari in New York, will be in charge of establishing distribution channels and key accounts worldwide.
“Susie has a substantial knowledge and experience in the American market,” Winser said. “She launched Pringle and Burberry Prorsum in America.”
Thomas, formerly Pringle’s international head of marketing and public relations, will be in charge of the brand’s p.r. and marketing worldwide.
“I wanted Charlotte for her wide experience in luxury marketing,” said Winser. “She comes direct from Pringle, and before that has worked on marketing everything from cars to champagne.”
Winser said she wants the executive director board to act “globally,” rather than locally, as in the past. “It’s much more the way a luxury brand needs to be run.”
Winser said she soon plans to announce the appointment of a global operations director, another new position.
She also has confirmed the positions of Aquascutum’s two chief designers: Michael Hertz, who designs women’s wear, and Graeme Fidler, who creates the men’s wear collections. They will oversee the collections worldwide.
And there are other, more cosmetic, changes at the brand. Winser has torn out the front lobby of the Aquascutum flagship at 100 Regent Street in London and opened up the space.
“It was always so flat and cold in the past. Now there are lifestyle mannequins in the entrance, and there’s so much more energy,” she said.