Alexandre de Betak to Become Creative Chairman at The Independents

After 30 years on the helm of manufacturing company Bureau Betak, Alexandre de Betak is changing into chair of inventive technique at father or mother firm The Independents, which acquired Bureau Betak in 2021 and in addition owns Karla Otto, Lefty and Prodject.

The transfer comes as The Independents works to double the dimensions of the group to succeed in $700 million in annual revenues by 2025. The corporate raised $400 million from funding agency TowerBrook Capital Companions and content material manufacturing and sports activities betting firm FL Leisure earlier this month to gas progress and finance additional acquisitions.

“Vogue exhibits and occasions have gotten extra necessary than ever, however they’re a part of a wider shift in the way in which vogue and luxurious manufacturers talk,” De Betak advised BoF. “What this step up will enable me to do is de facto dedicate myself to interested by the longer term, to engaged on the technique of how you can creatively reinvent what the way forward for vogue communications might be.”

In his new position, De Betak will set technique, assist to draw high expertise and determine new acquisition targets. Underneath De Betak’s path, the group may even put money into an incubator programme to nurture small however high-potential inventive firms with which the Independents can accomplice.

De Betak has already begun figuring out “complementary inventive skills” from adjoining industries the place collaboration might spearhead new methods of working, he mentioned.

De Betak will step away from day-to-day operations at Bureau Betak. Benedicte Fournier, Paco Raynal and Guillaume Troncy — who’ve all held the title of co-chief government officer since September 2021 — will proceed to guide the enterprise, alongside international head of design Simon Caillaud.

The Independents was based in 2017 after a merger between vogue PR agency Karla Otto and experiential advertising and marketing and occasions company K2. Since then, the group has acquired Qode, a Dubai-based luxurious communications company and Lefty, a Paris-based influencer advertising and marketing agency, in addition to Bureau Betak. Most just lately, the corporate acquired Prodject, the New York-based inventive company behind the Met Gala. Extra acquisitions are anticipated to be introduced quickly.