Big shot of the week
WELL that was all rather unexpected. Angela Ahrendts is the sassy, Diet Coke-guzzling executive we all thought was nailed- on for the top job at Apple.
As head of retail, she was widely regarded as boss Tim Cook’s de facto number two and, with a £55m pay package, she was even the highest paid person at the tech group.
And now she’s gone. Off to chase ‘new personal and professional pursuits’, apparently, though no word what they are. My bet? She’s heading back to fashion.
Prior to Apple, much- liked Angela was the genius credited with reviving Burberry, turning the stale, ailing heritage brand, whose famous brown check had been hijacked by beery football hooligans, into one the most coveted fashion labels in the luxury sector.
Born and raised in a nowheresville suburb of Indianapolis, Ahrendts took an interest in clothes from an early age, often hammering away in the modest family dwelling on her mother’s sewing machine. At school she was sporty – tennis, volleyball, cheerleader squad – her prowess perhaps down to her 6 ft frame.
AT University she studied to be a designer but soon came to realise she lacked the talent of her peers.
But she did have forthright opinions on which of their designs would work. The day after her finals, she departed for New York on a oneway ticket, eager to land a job in the Seventh Avenue boutiques.
She soon found work at a menswear company before joining brassiere maker Warnaco. It was tough going. 80- hour weeks. Plus Ahrendts had left her long-term beau Gregg, whom she had met at elementary school, back in Indiana. It would be another 17 years before he would move to New York and the couple married.
After stints at Donna Karan and Henri Bendel she joined Liz Claiborne in 1998, becoming vice president. At last, some power. Gregg had arrived in town by then and they had three children. Ahrendts finally felt secure. Settled.
So in 2006 when she received a phone call from Burberry chief Rose Marie Bravo asking if she was interested in moving to London to take up her job, Ahrendts’ first reaction: Not a chance.
A three-hour lunch with the firm’s new designer Christopher Bailey changed all that. He and Ahrendts hit it off. By the time the waiters had begun sweeping up, the new best buds had etched across several napkins their grand plans for Burberry.
After making the hop across the pond, Ahrendts didn’t move the family to London. Instead, they bought a large neo- Georgian Manor house just 20 minutes west of London with acres of land for the children to run around in.
Meanwhile, over at Burberry HQ one of her first initiatives was make the brand more exclusive. It had become over-licensed over the years, diluting its value. Ahrendts shut down 35 product categories, most of which used Burberry check. Bailey was handed total creative control. He even elected what mineral water was served in its stores.
Within six years, Ahrendts had doubled sales to £1.9bn. The company share price also increased by twice its value. Ahrendts was richly rewarded.
HER pay in 2012 stood at £ 15.6m, which included a £ 25,000 clothing allowance (on top of her 80pc staff discount) and a chauffeur driven Jag.
She never hid her admiration for Apple. Often in interviews, she would cite it as her inspiration for what she set out to do at Burberry. So when it offered her the chance to be the company’s executive president in 2014, few were surprised when she accepted.
The timing of her departure this week is a little unfortunate. Apple has had a comparatively poor time of it lately. Tumbling iPhone sales have caused shares to crash. None of this is Ahrendts’ fault. As head of retail, she’s over seen a highly successful expansion of Apple’s stores around the world.
Last week, Vogue business told how she remarked portentously of her success: ‘I just set the vision and I am the connector – I am the enabler if you will.’
Mark my words, we haven’t seen the last from Angela Ahrendts.