Luxury goods group Kering has appointed Jean Liu, Tidjane Thiam and Emma Watson to the Board of Directors. The announcement was made during the annual general meeting on 16 June.
Jean Lui is appointed as Director, Tidjane Thiam as Chair of the Audit Committee and Emma Watson as Chair of the Sustainability Committee.
“I am delighted to welcome Jean Liu, Tidjane Thiam and Emma Watson to our Board of Directors,” commented Kering Chief Executive Officer François-Henri Pinault. “Their respective knowledge and competencies, and the multiplicity of their backgrounds and perspectives will be invaluable additions to Kering’s Board of Directors.
“The collective intelligence that comes from diverse points of view and the richness of different experiences are crucial to the future of our organisation. I am proud to add such impressive talents to the team.”
Jean Liu is the President of Didi Chuxing, one of the world’s largest multi-modal mobile transportation platforms. Didi Chuxing delivers over 10 billion orders a year across 550 million users in Asia, Latin America and Australia.
Liu is also a well-respected figure in the information and technology sector and an advocate for women’s empowerment. She paved the way for the creation of the Didi Women’s Network, the first women’s career development programme within China’s booming internet industry.
From 2016 to 2019, Liu was featured in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International list. She was also honoured as one of Finance Asia’s Top Entrepreneurs in 2019 and recognised as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. She is also a founding member of the advisory board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum and a member of Asia Society’s Board of Trustees.
Tidjane Thiam was most recently Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse Group. During his tenure, Thiam built a successful restructuring programme which received Euromoney’s ‘Banker of the Year Award for Excellence’ in 2018. Through his leadership, Credit Suisse reached its highest profits margins since 2010.
Prior to his role at Credit Suisse, Thiam was Prudential PLC’s Group Chief Executive. In this role, he helped grow the firm’s market capitalisation to US$60 billion.
He was also elected Chairman of the Board of the Association of British Insurers and held leadership roles at Aviva, where he was Executive Director and CEO of Aviva Europe from 2002 to 2007.
Last April, Thiam was appointed as African Union Special Envoy on COVID-19 by African Union Chairperson and President Cyril Ramaphosa. Thiam also led one of the largest emerging market privatisations and infrastructure development programmes in Côte d’Ivoire, where he was the World Bank/IMF representative.
Emma Watson is a British actress and environmental activist, who rose to fame for her role as Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry Potter’ film franchise. In 2014, Watson was appointed UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador for her tremendous efforts supporting the women’s movement.
In the same year, Watson launched the HeForShe organisation which aims to include men in the fight for gender equality. Her work with this campaign earned her a place on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2015.
She was also instrumental in bringing the Time’s Up movement to the UK, as part of the Time’s Up Entertainment Steering Committee.
Watson also helped launch UK industry-wide guidelines — in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFI), the British Academy of Film and TV Arts (BAFTA) and other leading bodies — to stop bullying and sexual harassment within the British film and television industry.
In 2017, Watson was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to sit on the G7’s Gender Equality Council. She also helped establish the UK Justice and Equality Fund, which aims to end the culture of abuse and harassment in the UK by deploying expert organisations to support vulnerable women across the country.
