Managing Partner – Sector Advisory — Luxury Retail Portfolio

The mandate

Luxury brands and retailers can no longer treat marketplaces as a peripheral distribution issue. New-product platforms, resale businesses, social commerce and specialist consignors influence discovery, price and authenticity whether a brand participates or not. Direct participation can improve representation and reach, yet it may expose client data, weaken selective-distribution logic or create conflict with boutiques and wholesale partners. Staying outside can leave customers navigating unauthorised sellers and inconsistent remedy. The right answer differs by category, market and the evidentiary strength of authentication.

The advisory partnership is appointing a Managing Partner – Sector Advisory to lead this agenda from Paris. The appointee will advise boards and senior executives on marketplace participation, resale strategy, authenticity operating models, seller governance, client protection and channel economics. They will originate and steward major relationships, assemble multidisciplinary teams and remain accountable through implementation. The role demands sector authority, not a generic platform-growth proposition wrapped in luxury language.

This planned replacement follows the transition of an established partner. The incoming leader will inherit valuable relationships and colleagues but must define an independent point of view. They should be prepared to tell a brand that non-participation is no longer protecting clients, or tell a platform that growth cannot outrun provenance and remedy capability.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Paris, the Managing Partner reports to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council. The role can mobilise approximately 1,600 employees and material partners across strategy, digital, cyber, operations, consumer, data, legal coordination, transactions and implementation. A smaller core team will hold the luxury-marketplace proposition and develop senior client coverage.

Client situations may include a maison evaluating authorised marketplace distribution, a retailer deciding whether to host third-party sellers, a resale platform strengthening authentication, an investor assessing a trust thesis, or a group tracing diversion across channels. Each involves different rights and evidence. The practice must not imply that technology can establish authenticity without product expertise, custody and accountable judgement.

Trust spans the full journey. Seller admission, item provenance, content, pricing representation, payment, custody, delivery, dispute, return and refund all affect the client promise. In resale, condition grading and title may be as important as authenticity. Brand repair or digital-product records can support evidence but may not cover legacy items or lawful transfers. Advice must state these boundaries clearly.

First-year agenda

The Managing Partner will begin by reviewing the firm's relationships, credentials, live work and prior marketplace recommendations. They will identify where advice produced a durable client decision and where implementation exposed missing sector or operating knowledge. The output will be a focused set of client situations in which the firm can bring distinctive value and a clear account of the expertise required.

The leader will develop a trust-decision framework, not a standard answer. Common evidence may include category consequence, authenticity methods, seller model, custody, client understanding, service and remedy, selective-distribution constraints, price effects and full economics. Each assignment will rebuild hypotheses around the client's product, rights and operating model. Benchmarks can inform, but cannot decide.

Several senior dialogues should progress into precisely scoped engagements during the first six months. Engagement letters will define the board choice, access to item, seller and client evidence, executive ownership and implementation expectation. Where a client wants a public endorsement of an untested authentication claim, the Managing Partner must reframe or refuse the work.

On delivery, the appointee will ensure strategic recommendations become operational design. A marketplace entry may require authorised assortment, seller or partner criteria, content standards, data boundaries, custody, service and escalation. A resale intervention may involve intake, authentication, grading, pricing, returns and brand collaboration. A channel-enforcement project must distinguish unlawful or harmful activity from legitimate secondary trade.

Within twelve months, the practice should have produced a small set of high-quality outcomes, a stronger senior team and credible evidence-led insight. Publication may address client remedy, authentication economics or the relationship between primary and resale channels, but it must protect confidential work and avoid marketing certainty beyond the evidence.

Leadership responsibilities

The Managing Partner will own sector relationships, proposals, engagement quality and economics. They will sponsor the most sensitive assignments and ensure teams combine brand, client, legal and operating perspectives. Advice must disclose uncertainty, dependencies and the cost of maintaining any proposed trust standard.

The role will develop people who can understand a board distribution debate and an item-level authentication failure. Apprenticeship should occur through real client problems, with specialist voices empowered to challenge partner assumptions. The appointee will share relationships and credit across practices rather than use sector ownership to control access.

Partnership governance includes conflicts, independence, quality and succession. The luxury ecosystem contains overlapping brands, platforms, investors, authenticators and retailers. The Managing Partner must identify when separate teams, information barriers or declined work are necessary and explain those limits to clients before commitment.

Measures of success

The partnership will assess trusted origination, engagement contribution, executive references, repeat work earned through impact and client outcomes sustained after advisers withdraw. Outcomes may include fewer authenticity disputes, improved seller quality, clearer client responsibility, successful controlled marketplace entry or a board decision not to proceed. Identified opportunity and proposal value will not be presented as realised impact.

Practice health includes senior-team depth, cross-practice collaboration, talent retention, succession and responsible concentration by client. Risk measures cover conflicts, disputed claims, confidentiality, scope and client complaints. Thought leadership will be judged by the quality of board dialogue it creates, not publication volume or media attention.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 28 years of leadership in luxury, premium retail, marketplaces, resale, consumer strategy or related advisory work. They may be a senior consulting partner or a sector executive with extensive board advisory and client-development experience. They must demonstrate repeated judgement on distribution, authenticity and customer trust, not only brand strategy or digital commerce.

The board will seek examples where a candidate changed a marketplace participation decision, designed an authentication or seller-governance model and confronted a claim that exceeded available evidence. They should understand selective distribution, primary and secondary markets, custody, grading, client remedy and international variation.

The successful partner will have standing with maisons and platforms while remaining independent of both. They must handle sensitive disagreements, share credit and stay engaged when item-level operations challenge an elegant strategy. Fluency in the European luxury ecosystem and wider international markets is highly desirable.

Compensation and appointment terms

The indicative base is EUR 410,000–590,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation appropriate to partnership contribution. Entry economics will reflect verified client impact, responsible origination and senior-team leadership. Mobility, deferred remuneration and any progression into broader profit participation will be addressed transparently at the final stage.

Confidentiality

The advisory partnership is not named because the succession and several client relationships are sensitive. Governance and opportunity details will be disclosed after identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must not submit client names, item records, authentication methods or proprietary materials belonging to another organisation.