Pitti Immagine, Ivano Cauli is the new CEO

The presentation of the Pitti summer fashion fairs, scheduled for 5 May in Milan, will be the occasion for the first public outing of Ivano Cauli, the new CEO of the Florentine company Pitti Immagine (25.1 million turnover 2024), which organises the Pitti Uomo, Pitti Bimbo and Pitti Filati fairs, flanked for years by Pitti Taste (food), Pitti Fragranze (perfumes and beauty), Testo (publishing) and Danzainfiera (dance).

Cauli, who was appointed a few days ago, picks up a heavy inheritance not only because of the complicated phase that the fashion industry is currently going through, but also because of the 37-year uninterrupted 'reign' of Raffaello Napoleone, who will now remain managing director for international and institutional relations. Cauli's appointment marks a generational change: Napoleone, 72, makes way for a 50-year-old Lombard expert in digital transformation, founder in 2005 of the Openmind company specialising in e-commerce and cloud platforms, which was sold to Accenture in 2021.

The new CEO, who joined Pitti Immagine four years ago as innovation director, then appointed general manager (a position he will hold alongside that of CEO), was indicated by the Pitti Immagine board of directors, which was renewed in recent weeks. President for the 2026-2028 mandate has been reconfirmed Antonio De Matteis, ceo of the Neapolitan fashion group Kiton, while at the vice-presidency remains Antonella Mansi, president of Pitti Immagine's controlling shareholder, the Centro di Firenze per la moda italiana (Cfmi) formed by local institutions and economic categories.

The Pitti Immagine board of directors - also made up of Giovanni Basagni, Stefano Borsini, Ercole Botto Poala, Marco Landi, Niccolò Moschini, Raffaello Napoleone, Lorenzo Nencini and Marco Palmieri - is joined by Cauli himself and two directors from sectors other than fashion, Paolo Carrai (La Via del Tè) representing Pitti Taste and the entrepreneur and nose Laura Bosetti Tonatto (Essenzialmente Laura) for Pitti Fragranze.

Cauli's indication is explained,' says a note, 'by the need for that dynamic balance between continuity and discontinuity that is the true sign of this transition', and which was also expressed in the enlargement of the Pitti Immagine board of directors to include entrepreneurs from sectors other than fashion.