Jack Wills has poached a Burberry executive to become its first chief marketing officer.

Claire Waugh, Burberry global director of marketing for fashion in menswear, leather goods and softs categories, will join Jack Wills next month.

She will report directly to Jack Wills founder and chief executive Peter Williams and is expected to play a key role in building the preppy fashion brand’s appeal as it grows internationally.

Waugh has held various roles at Burberry since 2014, and before that spent 10 years at Starbucks where she rose to become director of strategic programmes for the EMEA region.

‘Vision, talent, drive’

Williams said: “I wanted to hire an inspirational individual to lead our marketing function globally.

“Claire has the vision, talent and drive to help market the brand around the globe effectively to our many different customers and in a way which fits the unique brand DNA of Jack Wills.

“Coming from Burberry, Claire has a fantastic understanding of fashion and beauty all of which will be directly relevant to her work at Jack Wills.

Waugh said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining Jack Wills at such an exciting chapter in the global growth of the business.

“Jack Wills is a uniquely British brand and I look forward to working with Pete and the team to continue developing the brand across a growing omnichannel business.”

New faces in management team

She is the latest addition to Jack Wills’ top team following Williams’ return to reinvigorate the retailer in 2015.

Other recent appointments include Mike Doyle as chief financial officer.

Williams said: “We are in the middle of a very exciting year with some very talented new faces joining.

“We will be looking to strengthen our team further still with other exciting appointments later this year.

“The calibre of talent we are attracting is evidence of the revival of the brand over the past two years and the pace of momentum.”

In its last financial year Jack Wills generated sales growth of 4% to £142.4m and EBITDA advanced to £12m at constant exchange rates, which Williams said showed “the scale of the financial turnaround within the business”.

Topics