Vice President Brand (New York)

VP Brand – Role Charter
Role Overview
The VP Brand leads Assouline’s global Brand organization and serves as the executive bridge between the Founders’ creative and editorial vision and the President’s business and organizational agenda. This role translates the Maison’s vision into an integrated Brand System: shared standards, priorities, levers, governance and levels of ambition that guide how Assouline expresses itself across all brand-facing touchpoints, from everyday outputs to fully orchestrated Maison moments. Working closely with the Founders and President, the VP Brand frames what each initiative must achieve, which Brand levers need to be activated, what level of impact and resources are required, and how to protect Assouline’s point of view while supporting growth. The role requires both creative authority and executive discipline. Not only the taste and cultural judgment to protect Assouline’s editorial depth, luxury codes, visual standards and ability to create the unexpected. But also, the leadership strength to structure teams, arbitrate priorities, manage budgets, develop talent and drive measurable impact.

Key Responsibilities
Brand Vision, Strategy & Maison Standards

Define and steward Assouline’s global Brand strategy in close alignment with the President, Founders and VP Strategy & Business Development.

Translate the Maison’s editorial, cultural and creative vision into clear brand priorities, standards and decision principles.

Ensure brand-facing expressions reinforce Assouline’s luxury positioning, cultural authority, visual identity, editorial depth and business ambition.

Protect consistency across image, tone, storytelling, content, communications, experiences, Retail activations, digital platforms and commercial-facing brand outputs.

Ensure Assouline remains timeless and recognizable while continuing to create discovery, surprise and cultural relevance.

Founders’ Vision, President Agenda & Strategic Translation

Act as the senior translation point between founder-led vision and the operational reality of the organization.

Turn creative and editorial direction into actionable priorities, briefs, standards, resource plans and decision frameworks.

Ensure business priorities are expressed through brand initiatives without allowing commercial urgency to dilute Maison standards.

Help the President and Founders arbitrate between ambition, timing, budget, quality and organizational capacity, while protecting the Maison’s vision and standards.

Ensure Brand teams understand what needs to be done, why it matters, how it should serve the Maison, and what level of impact is expected.

Brand System Architecture & Role of Each Lever

Lead the Brand leadership team across Image Studio, Marketing, Communications, Events & Experiences, and Digital & Innovations.

Define the role of each Brand lever: what it owns, when it leads, when it supports, and what kind of impact it is expected to create.

Clarify how image, campaigns, communications, cultural visibility, experiences, social, editorial platforms, innovation and commercial support work together.

Ensure each Brand pillar has a clear mandate, decision rights, scope, workload logic and contribution to the wider Brand System.

Prevent fragmentation by clarifying who leads, who contributes, who validates and who decides across Brand initiatives.

Master Brand Calendar, Prioritization & Impact Levels

Own the annual Master Brand Calendar architecture with the Brand leadership team.

Set the A+/A/B/C prioritization model and ensure each initiative receives the right level of brand support, resources, budget and senior attention.

Define the expected level of impact for each initiative, from standard execution to high-impact Maison moment.

Sequence launches, collaborations, seasonal campaigns, events, editorial initiatives, retail moments, digital innovations and partnerships with clarity.

Ensure Brand is involved early enough in strategic collaborations, new product initiatives and major commercial opportunities to define the Maison angle, Brand support level, storytelling ambition and required levers before execution becomes locked.

Protect the organization from over-activation by making clear arbitrations between volume, quality, business need, cultural relevance, available resources and brand impact.

Brand Expression, Creative Standards & Orchestrating the Unexpected

Ensure Assouline’s image, content, tone, communications, experience and digital standards are clear, protected and scalable across all brand-facing outputs.

Validate the strategic intent behind brand expressions, from daily content systems to campaigns, launches, Retail moments, events and Maison-level activations.

Ensure briefs and creative development processes are disciplined, inspiring and proportionate to each project’s priority level.

Work with the Founders, Image Studio Director and relevant teams to keep Assouline’s creative expression elevated, consistent, recognizable and distinctive.

Create the conditions for more memorable and unexpected brand expressions, rooted in Assouline’s DNA rather than novelty for novelty’s sake.

Treat surprise as a brand capability: a way to reveal the Maison through unexpected connections, cultural intelligence, elevated execution and stronger emotional impact.

Integrated Activation & Brand/Commercial Alignment

Oversee how Marketing, Communications, Events & Experiences, and Digital & Innovations translate priorities into integrated activation plans.

Ensure each initiative uses the right combination of levers: image, storytelling, PR, influence, cultural relations, events, social, editorial platforms, digital innovation, Retail, Wholesale, E-commerce and partnerships where relevant.

Challenge activation plans that are too generic, too fragmented, too channel-led, too operational or insufficiently ambitious for the Maison.

Work closely with Retail, Wholesale, E-commerce, Client Experience, Performance and Partnerships to ensure Brand supports international growth, client engagement, traffic, sell-through and long-term desirability.

Maintain a clear distinction between brand-building and commercial execution while ensuring both reinforce each other.

Governance, Budget, Resources & Team Leadership

Own the governance rhythm of the Brand organization, including leadership meetings, decision forums, escalation paths and senior alignment moments.

Ensure briefs, workbacks, validations, budget gates, resource planning and post-project learnings are embedded into the way Brand operates.

Own the annual Brand budget architecture across Image, Marketing, Communications, Events & Experiences, and Digital & Innovations.

Allocate and arbitrate resources based on Brand priorities, project levels, business relevance, creative ambition and operational capacity.

Lead, mentor and develop the Brand leadership team, ensuring each director has clear priorities, ownership, decision rights, standards and accountability.

Raise the level of leadership across the Brand organization by helping teams make better decisions, protect quality and work as one connected system.

Identify organizational improvements required to support Assouline’s next stage of growth.

Key Deliverables

Global Brand strategy and annual Brand priorities

Master Brand Calendar architecture

A+/A/B/C prioritization model

Brand lever strategy defining the role, ownership and expected contribution of each Brand pillar

Brand standards from everyday outputs to full Maison moments

Founder/President alignment principles for key Brand decisions

Brand governance and decision-rights framework

Annual Brand budget architecture and resource allocation principles

Brand leadership team objectives and priority roadmap

Campaign, launch and Maison moment strategic direction

Brand briefing standards and creative development principles

Cross-functional Brand/Commercial alignment principles

Post-project learning framework

Agency, partner and external support principles

Recommendations on what to elevate, simplify, stop, scale or protect

Profile & Experience

15+ years of experience in brand leadership, luxury marketing, communications, image, cultural strategy, creative strategy or integrated brand management.

Significant experience leading multi-disciplinary teams across image, marketing, communications, events, digital, social, content or cultural activation.

Strong understanding of luxury, culture, publishing, design, hospitality, art, travel, lifestyle or adjacent premium sectors.

Proven ability to translate founder or creative vision into scalable strategy, standards, processes and team ownership.

Strong judgment across image, storytelling, cultural relevance, commercial impact and organizational feasibility.

Experience building annual calendars, campaign architectures, budget frameworks, governance models and cross-functional operating rhythms.

Comfortable working with founders, presidents, creative leaders, commercial leaders and operational teams.

Strong people leadership, with the ability to mentor directors, structure teams, arbitrate priorities and raise the standard of execution.

Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to make complex decisions