Louis Vuitton has been quick to find a successor to Stefano Cantino. While its director of communications and events for the past five years is set to join Gucci to support Jean-François Palus as deputy CEO, the LVMH flagship has announced the internal recruitment of Blake Harrop.

The current president of the Wieden+Kennedy network of communications agencies (ten agencies worldwide) will take up his post at the beginning of May as vice-president, image and communications director of Louis Vuitton.

The Briton will bring his international expertise to the role, having worked in Shanghai, Tokyo and Europe since 2010, leading projects for a number of high-profile clients including Nike, Montblanc and Ray-Ban, as well as Facebook and Instagram.

The executive, a former top-level judoka, also worked in South Korea and the United States for Samsung, for whom he developed marketing strategies for social networks and mobile phones from the late 2000s onwards.

Based in Paris, he will report directly to Pietro Beccari, Louis Vuitton’s CEO, and will oversee the image and communications strategy of the brand, which has sales of over €20 billion.