Nicola Brandolese.

MILAN— Luxottica Group (NYSE:LUX) has announced leadership changes for the North American market, including the appointment of Nicola Brandolese as the new president of Retail Optical of Americas, effective immediately.

A company statement said, “After four years of service to Luxottica, Mark Weikel has decided to retire. His personal desire to invest time with family and friends is fueling his decision.” The company noted that Weikel joined Luxottica in 2011, taking on key leadership roles, including general manager of Sunglass Hut North America and LensCrafters president and general manager.

“Because of the growth potential in the North America market, Luxottica implemented a new structure to strategically and proactively manage its optical retail portfolio which Mark has led this past year,” according to the company, a change reported by VMail in March 2013. “Mark has influenced the growth and changes in many areas of organization through his role in Luxottica’s North American Executive Council and as a member of the OneSight board of directors,” Luxottica noted.

In his new role, Brandolese will lead both Retail Optical North and South America. He joined the Luxottica senior management team in September 2012 as group business development director and chief digital officer, based at Luxottica headquarters here.

The company stated, “Brandolese has a marketing, sales and customer-centric mindset, approaching services, products and organizations with the goal to build customer engagement. Prior to joining Luxottica, Nicola spent nine years with News Corporation, driving Sky Italy’s growth from a start-up to a $4 billion company, leading marketing, sales, product and customer management. Prior to that, he was a project leader with The Boston Consulting Group and a director at Sapient Corporation.”

Luxottica further added, “It is his unique mix of experience and knowledge of diverse functions, his natural push toward growth and passion for branding, marketing and customer management that make Nicola the right leader of our American retail optical business going forward.”

Reporting to Brandolese will be Eric Anderson, president and general manager of LensCrafters; Pete Bridgman, senior vice president and general manager of Pearle Vision; Mary Anne Stangby, senior vice president and general manager of Sears Optical; Alexis McLaughlin, senior vice president and general manager of Target Optical, and Guillaume Bonniol, vice president, RONA strategy. Erik Caldwell, senior vice president and general manager, Luxottica Optical Manufacturing (LOM) and lens procurement, will have dual reporting to Brandolese and to Massimo Vian, Luxottica Group’s chief operations officer.