Harrods looks to Condé Nast to replace outgoing partnerships director

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 11, 2020

Harrods veteran Guy Cheston is standing down from his role as partnerships director at the end of this month. His replacement, Alex Unitt, comes from luxury publishing giant Condé Nast and joins on April 8.

He’s stepping into a major role at the retail business with Cheston’s team having been managing all of Harrods’ commercial partnerships with leading luxury brands from around the world. Given that Harrods is one of the world’s top high-end department stores, that’s clearly a huge job.

Cheston has been at the luxury department store for more than 16 years having originally joined to set up its first media sales division. He took up his current role almost two years ago, moving on from the media sales director post to which he was appointed in 2011.

He’s leaving to focus on new opportunities in his specialist area and will be a partnerships consultant.

“Harrods thanks Guy for his commitment to the business and dedication to his team over his tenure, and we wish him the very best for the future,” the company said in a statement.

Having worked for Condé Nast since 2016, Unitt clearly has a deep insight into the world of luxury. But it’s interesting that his experience so far has been focused on publishing and media rather than retail.

He has worked at BBC Global News, been advertising director at Monocle, and EMEA commercial director for Time Inc. At Condé Nast, he was promoted to associate commercial director for global commercial partnerships in 2017 so will already have strong relationships with many big name brands in the luxury segment.