Prada’s Lorenzo Bertelli to Become Versace Executive Chairman

OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — Lorenzo Bertelli, the scion of Prada’s founding family and the group’s chief executive in waiting, will become executive chairman at Versace once Prada’s acquisition of the brand gets final regulatory approval, CEO Andrea Guerra told BoF’s Imran Amed on stage at BoF VOICES 2025 on Wednesday.

“He will be much more involved in the Versace journey,” Guerra said.

Bertelli — the son of Prada creative director Miuccia Prada and her husband, the group chairman Patrizio Bertelli — is set to eventually become Prada Group’s CEO. No date has been set for that transition, Guerra said. Bertelli is currently Prada’s chief marketing officer and the head of corporate social responsibility.

Earlier this year, Prada agreed to buy Versace for €1.25 billion ($1.45 billion). The deal is waiting for final regulatory approvals and is expected to clear that hurdle the first week of December.

With Versace, Prada is acquiring an iconic Italian fashion house that has seen revenue and profit suffer in recent years under the stewardship of Capri Holdings, which in 2018 paid €1.83 billion for Versace. The label’s revenue has plunged by about a quarter the past two years.

“I don’t want to kill the patient while we cure it,” Guerra said of his plan for Versace. “At the beginning, stability is a very important word,” he added in response to a question on the label’s future leadership, on both the management and creative sides.

He declined to give more details on what the cure might entail.

“There aren’t broken things but there are things that have been managed for quite some time in a certain way,” Guerra said. “We have an opportunity and the opportunity is long term. I’m not expecting any kind of result, any kind of tangible result tomorrow morning. We have fixed certain milestones that are important, but it will take time and we have the patience. We have seen it with Miu Miu. We have the patience to do it so let’s go for it.”

After four years of explosive growth at Miu Miu, Prada aims to stick a soft landing for its sister brand as growth normalises. Miu Miu’s revenue advanced 29 percent in the first nine months of the year, a slow-down on recent quarters, but still enough to keep Prada from posting a drop in group revenue.

“We are normalising our growth [at Miu Miu],” Guerra said. “I think we still have a huge opportunity. We have entered a period of 24 months of [telling people with proposals for Miu Miu] ‘no.’ You know, when you are having success everybody is offering you something. That’s the moment when you have to resist. That’s the moment where you need patience. That’s the moment where you don’t need to expand your space like hell.”

On the wider industry downturn amid punchy price hikes, including at Prada, Guerra said he’d much rather focus on the other side of the value equation: desirability, creativity and innovation.

“If we’re talking about prices, we have failed on other issues,” Guerra said. “If I’m not able to sell you an emotion and we discuss pricing, then I failed on the first part.”