Richemont already had a deputy chairman. On Wednesday it announced a second one, and instead of doubling up on the job, it cut the job in half.
Anton Rupert, son of the chairman Johann Rupert, becomes non-executive co-deputy chairman of the group behind Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Montblanc, with immediate effect. He serves alongside Bram Schot, who has held the deputy chairmanship since 2024 and keeps it. Neither role is executive. A co-deputy chairman sits on the board rather than running the business, which is why the division of duties between the two of them is the actual news here.
Who got which half
Anton Rupert takes the Maisons' Strategic Product and Communications Committee, the forum that shapes what the luxury houses make and how they are presented and sold. Richemont describes his brief as ensuring continuity in an area of central importance to the group's creative and commercial direction. Schot takes the rest: coordinating the board's committees and the group's corporate governance framework. The company says the split is there so that strategic priorities and governance obligations each get dedicated attention at that level.
Johann Rupert put it in the language of inheritance. “This appointment is an important step in the board's long-term succession planning,” he said, adding that 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. Anton, he said, will safeguard the creative and product priorities that define the Maisons, while Schot keeps governance to the highest standard.
The son who was already in the room
This is a promotion inside a boardroom Anton Rupert has been sitting in since 2017, when he joined as a non-executive director. He has also held positions at Remgro and at Watchfinder, one of Richemont's own businesses. When it brought him on, Richemont pointed to his knowledge of tech start-ups and to what it called valuable insight into changing consumer behaviour in digital marketing and web-based commerce, according to BusinessTech.
Succession at Richemont has been an open subject for years. Johann Rupert discussed it in a 2022 interview without giving much away, and Wednesday's announcement is the first hard piece of it to reach a filing.
The board met on 8 September and published the appointment the following morning, under the Swiss rule that requires a listed company to disclose price-sensitive news as soon as it has it. Richemont's primary listing is in Zurich, where it sits in the Swiss Market Index, and its secondary listing is on the JSE.
Nothing about the day-to-day running of the group changes. Johann Rupert remains chairman, and the committee that shapes what Cartier makes now has his son overseeing it.
