Jonny Hewlett

Jonny Hewlwtt is the UK Managing Director of Diesel, the Italian fashion giant.

He focuses on driving organisational change, integrating different cultures and re-applying proven approaches from other industries to achieve breakthrough results. Transitioning from the corporate FMCG world of Procter & Gamble to the fashion group Diesel has provided a broad spectrum of experience in areas such as leadership, change and trade customer management.

Jonny Hewlett began his career with Procter and Gamble Ltd. In 1997, he joined P&G's Fine Fragrance division (the combination of 2 acquired companies; the German based Eurocos and the US based Giorgio Beverly Hills). His initial brief was to create a Global Trade Marketing department which merged 2 very disparate organisations both culturally and geographically. Following this, he was assigned to lead the acquisition of Jean Patou Parfums, a small French based fragrance manufacturer which was to result in making the Lacoste brand a truly global player for P&G Fragrances, as well as helping establish a P&G affiliate presence in France.

In 2002, he became Global Market Strategy and Planning Director for P&G Fragrances (now re-branded as P&G Prestige Products) and helped to build Lacoste and Hugo Boss into leading market positions across the world.

In 2008, after 16 years at P&G, Jonny Hewlett left the company to join Diesel, the Italian based fashion giant, to be the Managing Director for the UK and Ireland. Across the last 2 years, his challenges have been to turn the UK affiliate around in sales and profit, re-structure the wholesale team to drive key account management and joint business planning partnerships with all major customers, re-evaluate the UK retail strategy and drive organisational change to embrace career development and a coaching culture across the business.

Jonny is a keen triathlete and marathon runner, having competed in races across the world. This summer (2011) he will attempt to cycle from John O Groats to Lands End and then swim the English Channel as part of a relay team in aid of the RFU Wooden Spoon Charity.

Testimonial
"Jonny 's insightful and forward-looking appraisal of Britain's retail landscape was delivered with passion at the John Lewis Senior Leadership Conference. Without doubt, his enthusiasm for 'big brand strategy' shone through".

Matt McCormack, Head of Buying, Menswear & Leisure. John Lewis.