Diane von Furstenberg Hires a New CEO; Hints at Semi-Retirement

Diane von Furstenberg. Photo: Corbis 

Next month, Diane von Furstenberg will transfer day-to-day operations of her company to her chosen successor, Paolo Riva, a designer and former executive at Tory Burch, Valentino and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Riva will serve as the company’s new CEO, and von Furstenberg isn’t shying away from calling the 41-year-old Italian her “heir.”

“This is a most important decision for me. This is an heir, somebody to take it on for the next decades,” she told WWD. Riva’s appointment comes after an extensive two year-long search (not to be confused with DVF’s search for a “brand ambassador”, which unfolded last year on her reality TV show House of DVF.) The year 2014 may have been nostalgic for the designer, who toasted the 40th anniversary of her iconic wrap dress and released a memoir, The Woman I Wanted to Be, but she has not announced her imminent retirement.

Last fall, she hinted that she would ultimately hand over creative direction of the company to its artistic director Michael Herz, and that her long term plans included anointing her granddaughter Talitha von Furstenberg as the company’s figurehead. Neither were mentioned in Monday’s announcement. With Riva, von Furstenberg assures her brand a stable future, giving her some time to pursue personal projects, like that crazy space-age park she and her husband Barry Diller hope to develop in the Hudson River.

Hey, you didn’t think she was moving to Boca, did you?

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