Michael Burke
47, CEO, Fendi
By Sarah Raper Larenaudie
Fall 2005 Style & Design
The best thing Michael Burke has ever done for his career was to skip
rugby practice one afternoon in Lille. Instead he met with two real
estate developers looking to hire someone on the cheap. Burke, a
business student who spoke French and English, was perfect for their
mission, which involved researching zoning laws in Florida.
One of the developers, Bernard Arnault, soon launched a new business,
which grew into LVMH. In 1986 he hired Burke to overhaul one of his
holdings, Christian Dior Inc., in New York City. Burke quickly set about
canceling scores of profitable licensing deals to return artistic
control to the house. He ran the business for seven years and spent four
more leading Louis Vuitton's U.S. operations. In 2003 he took on the top
job at fashion and accessories house Fendi.
In 2001 LVMH bought out joint-venture partner Prada, bringing LVMH's
total cost of acquiring Fendi to $1.1 billion, a sum even optimists say
will be hard to recoup quickly. Burke insists that Fendi, which lost an
estimated $31.6 million on $316 million in sales last year, will break
even by 2007. He scored an early victory by retaining longtime head
designer Karl Lagerfeld, who had been threatening to leave. Says
Lagerfeld: "He got ready in six months what the others couldn't do in
four years."
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