Galeries Lafayette beefs up its Chinese management team

By

Jean-Paul Leroy

Published
Oct 22, 2014

Galeries Lafayette has announced the appointment of Paul Burke as CEO of Galeries Lafayette China, the joint-venture put in place with I.T Limited, a Chinese specialist in the distribution of Hong Kong-based fashion brands, to accompany the development of Galeries Lafayette in China. It is a newly created position.

As such, Paul Burke will report to Nicolas Houzé, CEO of Galeries Lafayette and BHV MARAIS, and to Sham Kar Wai, President of I.T Limited.

According to the press release, Paul Burke has a dual mission: to see to the management and development of the 430,000 square foot flagship store in Beijing, opened a year ago, and to accompany the deployment of other openings planned by Galeries Lafayette China in the country.

Paul Burke is a specialist in the distribution trades, consumer goods and department stores. He has 25 years of international experience in these domains, including the last 15 spent in Asia.

Throughout his career, Paul Burke has held several operational positions at Adidas, Luxottica and AS Watson for the Asia-Pacific region. Since January 2014, he has been working for Lane Crawford, the department store chain from Hong Kong.

Of British nationality, 52 year-old Paul Burke has a diploma from Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne in England.