Burberry’s chief marketing officer Sarah Manley is reportedly set to resign during the summer after 17 years with the luxury fashion retailer and label.
According to “well-informed” sources speaking to Fashion Network, Manley is due to leave the FTSE 100 brand at the end of July and her resignation has reportedly been announced internally.
The news comes after Burberry’s chief creative officer Christopher Bailey presented his last collection during London Fashion Week last week.
READ MORE:
Ever since it was first revealed in October that Bailey was planning to step down as president and chief creative officer and leave Burberry, there has been speculation that Manley might also leave.
The Retail Gazette has contacted Burberry for comment and for details on a succession plan for the chief marketing officer role.
Manley joined Burberry one month after Bailey was named the label’s new creative director back in 2001.
Her career with the British firm started as global director of public relations, before she was appointed vice president, then senior vice president of marketing.
Manley has been her current position as chief marketing officer for the past decade, overseeing a team that has grown to more than 200 staff.
She has also been credited with having a pivotal role in expanding Burberry’s presence on a global scale through events like a holographic show, exhibition and store opening combinations in Beijing and Shanghai, and the “London in Los Angeles” concept at LA’s Griffith Observatory.
Fashion Network has even called her “the single most important communications and marketing executive in British fashion”.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
