Domenico De Sole


Domenico De Sole is an Italian businessman, chairman of Tom Ford International, and Sotheby's, director of Gap Inc., and former president and CEO of Gucci Group.

Early life

Domenico De Sole was born in Rome, Italy in 1944, the son of an Army general. He graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1970 with a law degree, and then received a scholarship for Harvard Law School, where he received an LLM degree in 1972.

Career

De Sole worked for leading US law firms, before becoming a partner at the Washington DC firm Patton, Boggs & Blow, specialising in tax law. One of his clients in the early 1980s was Gucci, where he helped with corporate restructuring, and Rodolfo Gucci, a son of the founder Guccio Gucci, enticed De Sole to join in 1984 as CEO of Gucci America.
De Sole was president and CEO of Gucci Group from 1994 to 2004. De Sole has been chairman of Tom Ford International since the company was founded in 2005.
In March 2015, De Sole became chairman of the international auction house Sotheby's, working alongside president and CEO, Tad Smith, whose appointment was announced on the same day.
De Sole is a director of Gap Inc. and Telecom Italia.

Personal life

De Sole and his wife Eleanore Leavitt De Sole own a retreat on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Eleanore De Sole sits on the boards of the Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia, and the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado.
They have two daughters. Laura De Sole, director of global marketing for Estée Lauder, married Benjamin Baccash in 2013. Eleanore Richards "Rickie" De Sole, senior accessories editor for Vogue magazine, married Derek Webster in 2012.