Breitling’s Aldo Magada to Replace Jean-Frédéric Dufour as Zenith CEO

Last month Jean-Frédéric Dufour made headlines with the announcement he would be taking over as the CEO of Rolex. Today, the watch world finally learned who will be replacing the outgoing Dufour as the head of Zenith.

LVMH, the luxury conglomerate which owns Zenith, revealed this afternoon that Aldo Magada will be taking over as President and CEO of Zenith. Madaga will take up the post on July 1.

In their statement LVMH stated, “Jean-Claude Biver, President of the Watches Division of LVMH, is firmly convinced that Aldo’s significant experience in the watch-making industry, combined with his proven-track record in product development and strategy as well as his in-depth knowledge of manufactures will be instrumental to develop Zenith.”

Magada, who started at Swatch in 1984 and also spent time at Piaget, worked alongside Biver at Omega, where Magada was Product Director and then Marketing Director, between 1994 and 1998. In 2000, Magada became President of Gucci Time Pieces. Between 2002 and 2009, he led Technomarine, Reuge and Badollet, before founding a consulting firm. Since 2010, Magada has been International Sales & Business Development Director at Breitling.

A Swiss citizen born in 1958, Magada is married, and has two children. He grew up in Switzerland and graduated from the University of Lausanne in 1981 and from the University of La Jolla in San Diego, California in 1982. Aldo Magada started his career in sales at Vifor, a para-pharmaceutical company.

Photo courtesy Zenith. Additional photo via Aldo Magada on Google +.