On 3 February 2025, the board of directors of Salvatore Ferragamo announced that it had reached an agreement with its chief executive officer, Marco Gobbetti, to end his duties on the date of approval of the 2024 financial statements, 6 March. The press release stated that the company had launched the selection of his successor "in accordance with the existing succession plan". For the interim period, executive powers were entrusted to the chairman, Leonardo Ferragamo, supported by a transition advisory committee.

On 20 April 2026, more than a year later, Ferragamo Finanziaria, the family holding company, appointed Fabrizio Freda, former president and chief executive officer of Estée Lauder, as special strategic adviser. His mission, according to the statements reported by the press: to advise the family on strategy, structure and operational efficiency, and to help it choose the future chief executive officer. As we write, on 4 October 2026, no chief executive officer has been appointed, according to the group's press releases and the press we have consulted.

We do not know why the appointment has not taken place, and we will not attempt to guess. What we can do, on the basis of public facts, is ask the question this case puts to all executives of family-controlled companies: how does a shareholder who holds control choose an operator, and how does the length of the vacancy change the nature of that decision?

The figures to know

Why this subject matters now

Ferragamo's chief executive position has been vacant for more than eighteen months. At this point, the duration itself becomes information. It says nothing about the quality of the shareholder's work, but it changes what the decision requires of it.

It also matters because the half-year results, published in early August, show a marked improvement: a return to a positive net result of 1.5 million euros, an EBITDA margin back up to 19.2%, operating expenses down 6.4%, a positive net financial position of 125 million euros. A group that is doing better without a chief executive officer raises a question that boards readily avoid: does the urgency of appointing diminish when the figures improve?

Two mistaken readings circulate in this type of situation.

The first: a search that is failing. Nothing in the press releases supports this. A chief executive search that takes time is not necessarily a search that is failing. It is sometimes a search for which the shareholder has not finished defining the mandate.

The second: a family reluctant to delegate. Here too, no fact says so. What the facts show is a family that has equipped itself with successive support arrangements, with a chairman holding executive powers and then a special strategic adviser placed alongside the holding company. The question is what these arrangements make it possible to decide, and at what point they cease to be transitional.

Three levels of decision, one vacant position

In a listed company controlled by a family, three levels overlap, and the vacancy of a chief executive position exposes all of them.

This table describes a coherent organization, with named responsibilities. It also reveals the particularity of the case: the person tasked with informing the choice of the chief executive officer was appointed by the shareholder, not by the company. The board of the listed company, for its part, must answer to all its shareholders, including those outside the family. The controlling shareholder has every interest in seeing these two circuits converge, and in making them legible from the outside.

The transition adviser: what the role brings, what it cannot do

Ferragamo has had two successive forms of transition advice: a chairman's advisory committee, in March 2025, composed of people who had already held management positions in the house, then a special strategic adviser, in April 2026, from outside the group and from a neighboring sector, beauty. These two arrangements meet two different needs, and they complement each other more than they replace each other.

The first guarantees continuity of the house's values and codes. The February 2025 press release emphasized the link with the heritage and the continuation of the renewal under way. The second brings an outside perspective and experience of running a major luxury and beauty group, over nearly sixteen years according to Reuters.

A transition adviser can do four things that are useful to a controlling shareholder.

• Translate a project into a profile. A family knows how to say what it wants to preserve. It then has to be taken from "someone who respects the house" to a precise description of what the executive must already have done.

• Challenge the timetable. An adviser independent of the teams in place can tell the shareholder whether time is working for or against it.

• Speak to candidates as a peer. A leading executive considering taking the helm of a heritage house wants to understand the shareholder, its expectations and its limits, before accepting. A peer helps them ask these questions.

• Protect the chairman. When the chairman exercises executive powers, a third party helps to distinguish day-to-day management decisions from those that commit the choice of the future chief executive officer.

There are three things the adviser cannot do. The adviser cannot decide in the shareholder's place. Nor can the adviser stand in for a chief executive officer to carry the strategy to the teams, partners and markets. And the adviser cannot alone remove the ambiguity that any advisory role creates when it lasts: as long as that role has no end date and the scope of its recommendations is not written down, the teams do not know to whom they must answer for their important decisions.

What is asked of a chief executive officer in a heritage house

The February 2025 press release set the mandate of the future executive: to pursue the policy of brand renewal and enhancement of the heritage, in order to strengthen its development. The figures for 2025 and 2026 show where the tensions that this mandate must arbitrate now lie.

In 2025, revenue fell by 5.7%, to 977 million euros, and the EBITDA margin dropped from 20.8% to 17%. In the first half of 2026, the group returned to a positive net result, with direct-to-consumer sales up 6.1% at constant exchange rates and the wholesale channel down 11.2%. The company attributes the change in margin to a higher share of full-price sales and to customers' preference for higher-value products.

A chief executive officer of a heritage house must therefore meet four requirements at the same time.

Preserve without freezing. The heritage of a family house is an asset, and also a constraint. The executive must know what, in that history, is a value and what is a habit.

Transform without breaking the family's trust. An outside operator arrives with a method. The shareholder's role is to know what it is prepared to see change, and to say so before the appointment.

Rebalance the channels. The decline in wholesale and the growth in direct sales describe a model in the process of redefining itself. The executive must make trade-offs, with teams, partners and customers whose interests are not the same.

Answer to two audiences. To the family shareholder, which has always known the house, and to the minority shareholders in the market, who judge on quarterly results.

When the vacancy lasts: what comparing durations teaches

The length of chief executive vacancies is rarely documented. Three recent cases, all drawn from official press releases, give an order of magnitude.

These three cases are not comparable in their detail: capital structures, sectors and circumstances differ. They serve only as a reference point. A vacancy of five to six months corresponds to the time needed for a completed search, notice period included. A vacancy that exceeds a year ceases to be an interim: it is a mode of governance.

This deserves to be said without judgment. It is possible that this mode is a conscious choice, for example because the shareholder considers that the group is better served, at this stage, by collegial leadership around its chairman. But that choice must be stated as such. A mode of governance that continues without having been decided ends up imposing itself on the shareholder itself.

The August 2026 figures make this exercise more delicate. When results improve, the temptation is twofold: to consider that the current leadership is sufficient, or to speed up the appointment to consolidate the recovery. Neither option is obvious, and neither is neutral. What matters is that the shareholder knows which one it is choosing, and why.

What this requires of senior management functions

A prolonged vacancy at the top shifts the content of several functions, well beyond the vacant position.

The particular case of a listed company controlled by a family

Ferragamo's structure, with a majority family holding company and more than two thirds of the voting rights, places the shareholder in a distinct position: its decision is the board's decision, and the market knows it. This has two consequences.

The first concerns clarity. Minority shareholders have no power over the appointment, but they expect reference points: a timetable, a mandate, a rationale. The absence of these reference points is itself information for the market. It is therefore in the family's interest to set out, before appointing, what it expects of the future chief executive officer.

The second concerns what is required of the candidate. An executive who accepts the leadership of a family-controlled company also accepts working with that family, often for years, on matters that are not settled in the boardroom: the pace of brand renewal, the place of heritage, the presence of family members in the house. The quality of this relationship is the first determinant of how long the mandate lasts.

Common mistakes

Letting a transitional arrangement become permanent without having decided it. An interim that lasts more than a year is a mode of governance. It must be chosen, explained and bounded, not endured.

Confusing the conduct of the search with the definition of the mandate. A search for an executive can take a long time because the mandate has not been settled. The first job is to write down what the chief executive officer will have to decide alone, and what will remain with the shareholder.

Leaving the adviser without a written scope. A strategic adviser placed alongside the chairman, the holding company and the board creates a fourth source of legitimacy. Without a written rule, the teams no longer know to whom they answer.

Reading an improvement in results as a reason not to decide. A recovery achieved under collegial leadership does not have the same conditions of durability as a recovery carried by a single executive. It may hold, but no one is accountable for it in the same way.

Looking for a profile before having named the phase. A chief executive officer to preserve a heritage, a chief executive officer to transform a distribution model and a chief executive officer to prepare a transmission are three different jobs. The profile follows from the phase, not the other way round.

Underestimating the relationship with the family. For an outside executive, this is the real condition of success. It is prepared before signing, by specifying the areas where the family decides, those where it consults and those where it lets go.

How to assess an executive for a family-controlled heritage house

1. Have they already led an organization whose main shareholder remained present day to day? Ask for specific examples of disagreements, of how they were resolved and of what the executive agreed to leave to the shareholder. The answer reveals their ability to exercise shared authority.

2. What is their reading of the house's heritage? An executive who speaks of the heritage as a backdrop has not understood the subject. One who describes it as an asset that must be maintained, and parts of which must evolve, knows what they are talking about.

3. Have they already steered a rebalancing of distribution channels? Between direct sales and wholesale, the trade-offs affect different partners and teams. The way they describe what they lost along the way tells whether they made decisions or merely followed a trend.

4. How do they describe their first hundred days facing a family that knows the house better than they do? This distinguishes the one who listens before acting from the one who applies a method. The right attitude depends on the phase, but the executive must know which one they are adopting.

5. Have they already worked with a shareholder's adviser, and how did it go? This question reveals how they deal with an arrangement in which legitimacy is shared: whether they see it as support, a constraint or competition.

Frequently asked questions

How long has Ferragamo been without a chief executive officer? Marco Gobbetti left his position on 6 March 2025, according to the group's press release of 3 February 2025. As of 4 October 2026, no chief executive officer had been appointed in the press releases and press consulted, which is more than eighteen months. Executive powers were entrusted to the chairman, Leonardo Ferragamo.

Who controls Ferragamo? Ferragamo Finanziaria, the family holding company, holds 54.3% of the capital and more than 66% of the voting rights, according to Reuters on 20 April 2026. It is chaired by Diego di San Giuliano. In practice, the family is in a position to have its choice prevail on the appointment of the chief executive officer.

What is Fabrizio Freda's role at Ferragamo? He has been special strategic adviser to Ferragamo Finanziaria since 20 April 2026. He advises the family on strategy, structure and operational efficiency, and helps it choose the future chief executive officer. He is not the chief executive officer. According to Reuters, his joining the company's board remains possible.

How is Ferragamo performing financially in 2026? In the first half of 2026, the group posted revenue of 468 million euros, up 1.9% at constant exchange rates, EBITDA of 90 million euros (19.2% of revenue) and a net result of 1.5 million euros. The net financial position is positive at 125 million euros. Direct-to-consumer sales rose 6.1% at constant exchange rates, wholesale fell 11.2%.

Can a family shareholder really choose its chief executive officer alone? When it holds a majority of the voting rights, yes, legally. In practice, the decision also commits the board, which must answer for it to all shareholders, and the candidate, who will only accept if they understand the relationship on offer. The family's strength lies in its ability to write down that relationship before starting the search.

How long does a chief executive search usually take in a major house? We have found no reliable public statistic on this point and prefer not to put one forward. Recent documented cases give a reference point: five months at Chiesi, from 15 May to 15 October 2026, about six months at Diageo, from July 2025 to 1 January 2026. Beyond a year, the duration reflects a governance choice more than a search timetable.

Key takeaways

• Ferragamo has been without a chief executive officer since 6 March 2025, which is more than eighteen months as of 5 October 2026, with executive leadership exercised by the chairman and a special adviser appointed by the family holding company in April 2026.

• The family holds 54.3% of the capital and more than 66% of the voting rights: the decision is its own, and it is a governance decision before it is a search.

• First-half 2026 results are improving without a chief executive officer, which makes the decision more subtle, not easier.

• A transitional arrangement that exceeds a year is a mode of governance: it must be chosen, written down and bounded.

• The profile of a future executive follows from the phase the house is opening, from what the shareholder is prepared to see change, and from the relationship it offers.

The Laroze Partners view

There is a temptation, in family-controlled groups, to regard the appointment of a chief executive officer as a private matter to be settled when the conditions are right. That is true of the choice, which belongs to the shareholder. It is not true of the timetable, which also belongs to the teams, the partners and the markets, and which the shareholder chooses only in appearance.

What the Ferragamo case shows all executives and directors of family businesses is that time is a governance variable. A five-month interim is an in-between. An arrangement that lasts more than eighteen months is an organization, with its advantages and its costs, which must be looked at as such. We make no judgment on the family's choices, which we do not know from the inside. We simply note that the question it faces is universal: which phase do we want to open, and on what terms do we entrust the mandate?

This is the work we carry out with shareholders and boards before looking for a name. The Laroze Pattern®, our method for the strategic reading of career trajectories, leadership behaviors and performance dynamics, makes it possible to distinguish, in an executive's track record, what proves that they have already led the phase in question from what merely suggests it. The houses that succeed in their succession are those that wrote their mandate before writing a list.

Sources

Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. press release, 3 February 2025 (consensual termination of Marco Gobbetti's duties, transition governance) · Reuters, 20 April 2026, via FashionNetwork and Global Banking & Finance (appointment of Fabrizio Freda, ownership of capital and voting rights) · Pambianconews, 20 April 2026 · Jing Daily, 21 April 2026 · Teleborsa, 27 January 2026 (2025 figures) · L'Adige and Soldionline, 11 March 2026 (2025 financial statements) · Teleborsa, 3 August 2026, and La Nazione, 4 August 2026 (first-half 2026 results) · Chiesi press release, 15 September 2026 · Diageo press release, November 2025.