Guess Taps MCM CFO to Lead Finance

Guess Inc. said Tuesday it hired Markus Neubrand, the current group chief financial officer at MCM Worldwide, to be CFO. 

Neubrand officially joins the Los Angeles denim brand in August and succeeds interim CFO Dennis Secor. Secor had been filling the CFO position for the past year and is expected to stay on as an executive vice president through March 31 of next year to assist during a transition period. 

Neubrand has been with MCM since 2021, joining the luxury company from Hugo Boss where he was most recently chief operating officer and CFO of the Americas business. 

“After a rigorous search process, we are thrilled to welcome Markus as our company’s next chief financial officer,” Guess CEO Carlos Alberini said in a statement. “Markus is an accomplished finance and operating executive who also brings deep apparel industry experience and strong leadership, operational and strategy skills.” 

In addition to Neubrand’s hiring, Fabrice Benarouche was promoted to senior vice president of finance, investor relations and chief accounting officer. 

The finance department changes come as Guess continues on with a multi-year transformation strategy that began about three years ago.

The plan has focused on creating product for the global market across categories, as opposed to creating merchandise for specific territories. Elevating the Guess brand has been another component of that plan, which has improved through the company’s focus on quality.

Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Paul Marciano said in March, at the time of the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year results, the “brand momentum is strong,” with room to grow market share.

“We continue to work on making our product better every day, investing constantly to increase the quality of our products across all categories with a strong focus on sustainability,” Marciano said at the time. “Our customers continue to respond well to our collections and it is clear that our marketing efforts are paying off.”

The company ended its fiscal year 2023 with net revenue of $2.7 billion, which was up 4 percent from the prior year. Meanwhile, net earnings fell 12.7 percent to $149.6 million for the year ended Jan. 28. 

Guess said in March it expects revenue to rise in the current fiscal year in the range of 1 percent to 3 percent, with adjusted earnings per share of $2.45 to $2.80.