Richemont’s board has taken a formal step toward its next generation of leadership, appointing Johann Rupert’s son to a newly created co-chairmanship role.
What the appointment reveals: a board decision, not a shareholder vote, taken on 8 September 2026 and announced the following day alongside Richemont’s Annual General Meeting; a 39-year-old with a technology and digital-commerce background rather than a conventional Maison career; and a role split with fellow Non-Executive Deputy Chairman Bram Schot, dividing governance and creative continuity between the two.
A board decision, not an election
On 8 September 2026, Compagnie Financière Richemont’s board of directors appointed Anton Rupert as Non-Executive Co-Deputy Chairman. The decision was announced on 9 September, the same day Richemont published the results of its 2026 Annual General Meeting in Geneva — the two events coincided but were separate: the co-chairmanship was a board appointment, not a matter put to shareholders.
Johann Rupert, Richemont’s chairman and Anton’s father, described the move in the group’s own statement: “This appointment is an important step in the Board’s long-term succession planning. Richemont’s strength has always rested on the continuity that comes from close family involvement, on rigorous governance, and on an unwavering commitment to creativity and craftsmanship.”
The new role is shared. Bram Schot, Non-Executive Deputy Chairman since 2024, becomes co-deputy chairman alongside Anton Rupert, with the two dividing responsibilities: Schot on board and committee governance, Rupert overseeing the Maisons’ Strategic Product and Communications Committee — creative and commercial continuity across the group’s twenty-three Maisons.
Anton Rupert at a Glance
- Born in 1987 in South Africa; named after his grandfather, Dr Anton Rupert, who founded the Rembrandt Group from which Richemont emerged in 1988.
- Joined Richemont’s board as a non-executive director in 2017, around age 30, with a mandate centred on technology start-ups, digital commerce and changing consumer behaviour.
- Director of Watchfinder & Co. from July 2018 to December 2019, following Richemont’s acquisition of the British pre-owned specialist.
- Joined the advisory board of Asia Partners Fund I, a Southeast Asian growth-technology investor, in January 2021.
- Sits on the board of GESDA, the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator.
- Appointed Non-Executive Co-Deputy Chairman of Richemont on 8 September 2026.
A technologist’s path, not a Maison apprenticeship
Unlike many heirs to major luxury groups, Anton Rupert has no conventional executive record inside a Maison: no period running Cartier, IWC or Vacheron Constantin, and no progression through sales, finance or manufacturing roles. Richemont’s own biography instead credits him with “extensive exposure to all of the Group’s businesses” before his 2017 board appointment, and his subsequent roles have stayed close to technology and venture investing: Asia Partners Fund I since 2021, and, through the Rupert family’s separate Reinet investment vehicle rather than Richemont itself, a non-voting observer seat tied to Carbon, the American digital-manufacturing company, around its 2015 funding round.
He is also a non-executive director of Remgro, the Rupert family’s South African investment company also chaired by his father, and a partner of Compagnie Financière Rupert, the family holding vehicle. The Rupert family holds roughly a tenth of Richemont’s share capital but, through the group’s dual-class share structure, just over half of its voting rights — the mechanism that keeps the family in control of a group whose shares trade publicly on the SIX Swiss Exchange and, secondarily, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
A group built on twenty-three Maisons
Richemont’s current portfolio, as listed on its own site, spans jewellery (Buccellati, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vhernier), specialist watchmaking (A. Lange & Söhne, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin), and fashion and accessories (Alaïa, Chloé, Delvaux, Dunhill, G/FORE, Gianvito Rossi, Montblanc, Peter Millar, Purdey, Serapian), alongside Watchfinder & Co. and TimeVallée. Two names sometimes still associated with the group are no longer part of it: YOOX Net-a-Porter, sold to Mytheresa in a deal that closed in April 2025, and Baume & Mercier, whose sale to Italy’s Damiani Group was announced in January 2026.
The group reported sales of €22.4 billion for the year ended 31 March 2026, up 11% at constant exchange rates, with operating profit of €4.5 billion.
A signal worth watching
Analyst reaction pointed to continuity. Jean-Philippe Bertschy at Vontobel described succession as a topic across the luxury industry generally, calling this a natural step for the group to take.
For Richemont’s Maisons and the markets they serve, including the Middle East, the appointment is a signal worth watching: Anton Rupert’s own public role has been limited so far, and his influence to date has run through committees and advisory boards rather than public statements. Whether that changes as the succession plan moves forward is, for now, the open question — one that speaks to the continuity Johann Rupert himself pointed to in announcing the appointment.
