Kering appoints chief diversity, inclusion and talent officer

By

Olivier Guyot

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Oct 1, 2019

French luxury group Kering, which has pledged to promote diversity within its organisation between now and 2025, has announced that from October 1 it has strengthened its HR department in this respect, by appointing Kalpana Bagamane Denzel as chief diversity, inclusion and talent officer.

Bagamane Denzel, from the USA, has a 25-year international managerial experience, and worked for Andersen Consulting before joining Procter & Gamble. She was recently in charge of diversity and inclusion at recruitment agency Russel Reynolds Associates, where she “advised and partnered global and Asian clients across the consumer and retail sectors on talent strategy, acquisition, and development,” stated Kering in a press release.

Bagamane Denzel’s expertise will clearly prove to be very useful at Kering. The group stated that “working with the Houses and global Group functions, Kalpana will align and execute Kering’s global diversity and inclusion mission and strategy. This will include identifying and prioritizing initiatives to help create an environment that embraces and encourages diversity. Kalpana will also take the lead on developing a talent strategy where diversity and inclusion will be at the core of attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining talent.”

Fashion labels and groups are now permanently under scrutiny in terms of their inclusivity and their respect for cultural diversity, and are increasingly taking new organisational measures to deal with the issue. For example, Prada created a committee to monitor issues of inclusivity, headed by director Ava DuVernay and artist and activist Theaster Gates; Fiona Pargeter was appointed as global head of diversity and inclusion at Chanel, and this summer Gucci hired Renée Tirado as its new global head of diversity.

Kering claims to be the only luxury group appearing in the first ranking of the 100 best-performing corporations in the European diversity and gender index created by the European Women on Boards (EWoB) and Ethics & Boards organisations.

Bagamane Denzel reports to Béatrice Lazat, Kering’s Chief People Officer, who oversees no fewer than 35,000 employees worldwide for the group. In 2018, Kering generated a revenue of €13.7 billion.