(L to R) Justin Andrews, Crystal Rousseau and Randee Epstein.
NEW YORK—Luxottica Wholesale announced it has appointed two new executives to its North America leadership team. Justin Andrews, a longtime Luxottica leader in Asia Pacific, has been named senior vice president for Oakley sport and optical channels and Crystal Rousseau, a veteran beauty executive, joins Luxottica as vice president of the independent channel. In addition, Randee Epstein has been promoted to vice president of human resources. “We have laid some important groundwork over the past few years, strengthening our product and service offering for customers and cleaning our distribution network. Our brands are performing very well and we want to continue to be the ideal partner for the optical community, but our sights are set higher and the market is moving fast—there is so much opportunity in front of us,” said Fabrizio Uguzzoni, president of Luxottica Wholesale North America. “The time is right to bring in additional talent to build on what we have. Justin, Crystal and Randee have what it takes to get us there. The energy of our team today is as positive as ever.”

Andrews joins the leadership team from Luxottica in Australia, where he served as managing director for the South Pacific region. During his eight-year tenure, he was charged with growing Luxottica’s business and brands in markets including Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. In his new role, reporting directly to Uguzzoni, Andrews will be responsible for driving the vision and strategy of sport and optical channels with a focus on Oakley. Key opportunities will include building on Oakley’s equity and strong positioning in the market to grow the brand, as well as other Luxottica brands, across sport channels and leverage on the power of Oakley’s prescription offering.

Rousseau brings more than a decade of leadership experience in the beauty industry to her new role. Most recently, she served as assistant vice president of brand and sales at L’Oreal USA’s Professional Products Division. She led the distribution and strategy within the independent channel, managing all launch and promotional activity for the licensed professional salon brands including L’Oreal Professional, Redken, Pureology, Matrix, Biolage, Essie and Baxter.

In her newly created role, reporting to Ludo Ladreyt, SVP of sales for Luxottica Wholesale N.A., Rousseau will be responsible for growing the U.S. optical independent channel by strengthening customer relationships and creating value for independents, as well as building on Luxottica’s consultative selling approach with new capabilities and services, the company said.

Epstein, the wholesale division’s new vice president of human resources, was promoted into her new role after serving as senior director of human resources for the past five years. Her expertise has been instrumental in leading the talent acquisition strategy for the business and creating opportunities for employee engagement and effectiveness, the announcement said. Reporting directly to Uguzzoni, Epstein will continue to set and execute the long-term vision for the organization’s people function.