Gucci appoints new CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures

Gucci has appointed Robert Triefus as CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures, a recently created division designed to scale and expand the Kering-owned brand’s metaverse and gaming strategies.

Triefus will succeed Gucci Vault CEO Nicolas Oudinot, who is leaving the company at the end of October to pursue other opportunities. Triefus’s appointment will be effective 1 November. He will report directly to president and CEO Marco Bizzarri and will also continue in his current role as senior executive vice president for corporate and brand strategy.

Gucci has become one of fashion’s most prominent brands to experiment with Web3 and the metaverse as more luxury companies determine how they should use the emerging technologies. It was one of the first to experiment heavily in gaming platforms, before going on to create a persistent virtual world on Roblox.

It was the first luxury brand to launch an NFT, and has since partnered with virtual world and NFT project 10KTF, and is now building out a space in blockchain-based virtual world The Sandbox.