The chairman of Burberry Group Plc announced that the future of creative designer Daniel Lee will hinge on the strategy and direction set by the new leader of the struggling fashion brand.
During the British company’s annual meeting, Chair Gerry Murphy was asked about Lee and responded that new CEO Joshua Schulman would make the decision.
“The chief executive of the day has to have the flexibility and the scope to craft their own team,” Murphy told investors. This statement came a day after Burberry issued a profit warning and paused its dividend.
On Monday, Burberry surprised the market by revealing that Schulman would take over after Jonathan Akeroyd, who had hired Lee as part of a broader plan to rejuvenate the “Britishness” of Burberry, left the brand with immediate effect after less than two-and-a-half years in charge.
Schulman, a former CEO of Michael Kors, Coach, and Jimmy Choo, starts his role on Wednesday and will be able to implement Burberry’s strategy in his own way, Murphy said. He added that the new CEO would decide what the “shape of the team should look like.” However, on Monday, Murphy told reporters that Lee “wasn’t going anywhere.”
Lee was hired in 2022 to replace Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, who had been brought in by Akeroyd’s predecessor, Marco Gobbetti.
