Baselworld, the world’s largest watch and jewellery fair, appoints a new Managing Director, Michel Loris-Melikoff

The man tasked with reshaping Baselworld to meet the current challenges is a 53-old lawyer who started his career in Private Banking. He was previously with the MHC group (the company organising Baselworld) in Lausanne. The longstanding Managing Director of Baselworld, Sylvie Ritter, has decided to step down from her position at the MCH Group after 15 years. The transfer of management will take place on 1 July 2018.

Baselworld needs to rethink itself and how it operates. If the industry has seen business improve over the past months after a prolonged downturn, Baselworld faces great challenges with the withdrawal of numerous exhibitors (several of them now showing at SIHH), the smaller size of the fair and increasing criticism about the organisation. The number of days of the event was reduced by two days in 2018. A few years ago, MHC invested massively to upgrade the show and build a larger exhibition area.

The press release (see here) announcing the management handover states that numerous changes are to be expected for Baselworld 2019, so stay tuned.