Francois Viargues Email & Phone Number

New York, NY, US

Milan, IT

• Fast growing privately-owned beauty group headquartered in Italy. Brands: Florence by Mills, Blake Brown, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Chopard, Elie Saab, Zegna. ► Exponentially grew the US/Canada revenue in 3.
• Reported directly to the Group founder and Chairman on all top- and bottom-line (full P&L).
• Built from scratch and led a team of 23 in sales, trade marketing and brand education.
• Interim CFO in 2022, interim Brand CEO of Florence by Mills Winter 2022/23, interim COO Fall 2023.► SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
• Strengthened Florence by Mills thanks to a close and trustful relationship with Ulta.
• Teamed up on Blake Brown, making the Blake Lively line the biggest hair care launch ever on record at Target.

Los Angeles, CA, US

New-York City, NY, US

• Premium bakery stores, tea rooms and restaurants. 10 locations in the US.
• Implemented in 6 months a successful and profitable post-Covid omni-channel strategy and business model.
• Developed a franchise business model and negotiated an ambitious business plan in 7 new states.
• Built cost-effective support functions in finance, HR, with a huge focus in IT (POS Software Toast, Compeat Restaurant CRM, Shopify project), legal (new franchises) and Real Estate (renegotiation of the leases).
• Successfully created an internal Digital team handling the e-commerce, SEO/SEM, and the social medias.

• Beauty start-up: “on-the-go haircare in under 10 minutes”.
• Co-founded and successfully launched a new beauty brand in 2 years.
• Managed the brand positioning, branding, identity, and the packaging design.
• Developed a curated line of 5 essential hair products.
• Implemented a successful digital strategy (website, social media platforms, content, beauty influencers).
• Surpassed the DTC industry ratios (conversion rate, returning customers) as a result of securing an online advertising strategy through Facebook/ Instagram, Amazon and Google/ YouTube.

Toulouse, Occitanie, FR

• Premium Hair Care Division► Led a national team of 26 in marketing, sales, customer service and brand education personnel. Reported directly to US CEO on all top- and bottom-line (full P&L) performance.► SALES
• In under 2 years, rebranded haircare product line into a premium brand via more focused distribution. – In 2013, strategically closed 12% of low-end/-margin sales and repositioned in only high-end salons. – Reversed a.
• Increased new doors by 26% in 2015 and grew average first order by 100%, improving exposure in places such as Barneys NY.
• Executed an elite ambassador reward program.
• Implemented MS Dynamics CRM, which streamlined customer engagement, follow up.► MARKETING
• Created René Furterer Academy.

Toulouse, Occitanie, FR

• US division of a multinational cosmetics and pharmaceutical company headquartered in France. Brands: Avène, Klorane, René Furterer. Group’s total global sales are $3B, with 10K employees.
• Received international promotion and relocation from VP of internal audit (in France) to the US as CFO.
• Provided financial and operational leadership for 4 business units (retail, salons, dispensing and pharma).
• Developed a top-performing team of 17 (finance, logistics, customer service, IT, legal and human resources).
• Created P&L dashboard to identify business gaps and pricing issues (rolled out to other subsidiaries).
• Successfully deployed SAP Business One ERP in a 4-month deadline which improved overall operations. Deployed the Essbase and Hyperion reporting tools.

Toulouse, Occitanie, FR

Created internal audit function in line with international standards and performed more than 100 audits. Developed group governance with enforcement from the audit committee. Mapped risks and executed compliance with LSF Act (SOX equivalent). Member of the steering committee for IFRS project. Executed M&A due diligence for efforts such as the sale of.

Toulouse, Occitanie, FR

Audited various foreign subsidiaries and financial and operational processes.

London, GB

Executive Mba

Master Of Science (Ms), Finance