🔵 Diesel: when a CEO becomes the missing piece

After more than two years of waiting, Diesel’s CEO position may finally find its occupant. According to industry sources, Andrea Rigogliosi, coming from Miu Miu, is expected to take on the role in early 2026, once his non-compete clause expires. Officially, nothing has yet been confirmed. But the prospect is solid enough to reveal a strategic dynamic worth noting.

For the past three years, Diesel has been caught in a paradox. On the creative side, Glenn Martens has breathed new life and desire into a brand once considered exhausted. His spectacular shows, bold visual language, and connection with Gen Z have brought Diesel back to the center of the cultural conversation. Yet behind that energy, a pilot was missing. The previous CEO, Eraldo Poletto, left after only a few months, leaving the company without durable operational leadership. A flamboyant creativity—without a rudder.

The choice of an executive shaped by luxury and global retail is no coincidence. Rigogliosi would not come to redraw Diesel’s image—that mission is already in good hands. He would come to build the invisible foundations that turn a cultural success story into an economic trajectory. To stabilize the network, drive direct-to-consumer expansion, and safeguard margins in a market where inflation and a slowing luxury sector weigh heavily on the balance.

Why now? Because the strategic window is closing. Diesel has regained desirability. Its parent group OTB is consolidating its brands and securing its supply chain with targeted acquisitions. Yet the environment remains fragile: losses in the UK, a global slowdown, shrinking margins. If Diesel wants to convert cultural momentum into lasting power, now is the time to lock in its managerial architecture.

The underneath of the cards is clear. Diesel would not merely be appointing a leader; it would be completing a triptych:

The creative, Martens, carries audacity and imagination. The strategist, OTB, consolidates and finances. The new executive would embody the missing piece: turning momentum into system, image into model, instant into duration.

It is this hidden symmetry that will decide whether Diesel remains a “hype” brand or becomes a stable pillar of the industry. Observers will speak of a nomination. The initiated will recognize it as a rebalancing of forces—necessary for Diesel to stand the test of time.

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