Valentino Appoints Ex-LVMH Leader to Head European Strategy

Valentino shores up its management. The Italian house has renewed its top management with the entry of Esther Hörmann, an executive with a long career in companies in the Pronovias, Loewe, Prada and, more recently, LVMH sector. The appointment comes at a time of tension for Valentino, which reached an agreement with the French group Kering and the investment fund Mayhoola to make an injection of 100 million euros in the capital of the Italian firm.

With a degree in commerce from the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca and specializing in marketing and market analysis, Hörmann took her first steps at Mango as head of international expansion in Europe and India in 2006. Two years later, she was hired by the Barcelona-based brand Friday’s Project, also as head of expansion and franchising. In 2010, she joined Pronovias as head of global franchising, rising to global retail director two years later.

In 2014, she was appointed director of Loewe in Europe and the Middle East, and in 2017 as director for Iberia, Italy, Germany and the Middle East. Two years later, it was the Prada Group who appointed her director of Iberia, and in 2023, travel goods company Rimowa signed Hörmann as director of Emea, rising in January 2025 to commercial director of the brand, a position she has held until January 2026.

Valentino ended fiscal 2024 with a 22% drop in gross operating profit and a 3% decline in sales

Last November, Valentino reached an agreement with the French group Kering and the investment fund Mayhoola to inject €100 million in the Italian company’s capital in order to strengthen the group’s financial structure.

The entry of new funds responds to the demand of the banking pool that in 2024 granted a loan of €530 million, after Valentino failed to comply with the conditions (covenants in financial terminology) of this financing.

Valentino released its 2024 results in April , which showed a downward performance, with a 22% drop in gross operating profit (ebitda) and a 3% decline in sales. Shortly after, at the end of August, the Italian company changed captain after five years under the leadership of Jacopo Venturini, who has been replaced as CEO by Riccardo Bellini, former CEO of Mayhoola.