The move mirrors a similar process that took place earlier this year in the Americas, with the former global brand director of Vans, Steve Murray, taking responsibility for both brands in connection with the establishment of the new Action Sports Coalition of VF Corporation.
The new vice president and general manager of Vans & Reef EMEA is Daniel Le Vesconte, who was previously in charge of only Vans for the region. Reporting initially to Murray when he was stationed in Europe, the executive has been involved with Vans for more than ten years. Jean-Pierre Torgue, who was in charge of Reef EMEA, is leaving the group after reorganizing operations and acquiring the distribution of Reef in the Canary Islands, Switzerland, the U.K. and Ireland, the Benelux countries and Germany (see SGI Europe of Jan. 12).
Based like before at VF’s European office in Lugano, Switzerland, Le Vesconte will oversee a team of five executives, two of whom will be responsible for both Vans and Reef – Jeremy de Maillard for marketing and Réné Nay as product director. They were both previously working for Vans. Based at Bidard near Biarritz, Simon Wootton, EMEA marketing director for both Vans and Reef, will now report to Jeremy de Maillard. Raffaella Biroli, who was already stationed in Lugano, will continue to take care of product for Reef, but she will report to Nay.
Three other executives in Lugano will now report to Le Vesconte: Andy Wagner, sales director of Vans EMEA; Louise Dunlea, sales director of Reef EMEA; and Steve Such, retail operations director of Vans EMEA. As previously reported, Reef is not pushing the establishment of single-brand stores in Europe for the moment.
