Name Stefan Larsson | ||
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Alma mater Hanken School of EconomicsJonkoping International Business School Salary US$4,535,579 (total compensation, 2014) | ||
Stefan Larsson (born 1974) is an American businessperson. After working for Old Navy and H&M, he was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Ralph Lauren Corporation between November 2015 and May 2017. Larsson replaced the company's founder, Ralph Lauren, as CEO. Larsson reported to Lauren, who remains with the company as its executive chairman and chief creative officer.
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Early life and education
Born in 1974, Larsson received a Master of Science in Business Administration jointly from the Hanken School of Economics in Finland and Jönköping International Business School in Sweden.
Old Navy
Larsson served as global president of Old Navy, part of The Gap's portfolio, from October 2012 to September 2015. He transformed Old Navy into Gap Inc.'s top performing business unit, achieving three consecutive years of profitable growth and better sales revenues than Banana Republic and Gap. By offering trendy clothing at low prices and overhauling its global supply chain to increase speed to market, Larsson increased Old Navy's revenue by nearly $1 billion.
Hennes & Mauritz
Larsson worked for the Swedish fashion company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) for nearly 15 years, rising to the position of Head of Global Sales "with functional responsibility for about 2,300 stores and nearly all of its $17 billion in annual sales." During that time, he was part of the executive team that increased annual revenues from $3 billion to $17 billion and expanded its operations from 12 to 44 countries. He also oversaw real estate, store design and construction.
Ralph Lauren
On 29 September 2015, it was announced that Stefan Larsson would replace the company's founder, Ralph Lauren, as CEO in November. Lauren stayed on as executive chairman and chief creative officer.
The Company and Stefan Larsson mutually agreed to part ways after Ralph Lauren stated they found themselves having different views on how to evolve the creative and consumer-facing parts of the business.
In February 2017 it was announced that Larsson had agreed to leave his position as CEO effective May 1, 2017 due to differences with Lauren. On the day of Larsson’s departure, the Ralph Lauren stock dropped -12% on NYSE. He was replaced by Patrice Louvet.