Burberry Designer Bailey to Be CEO as Ahrendts Goes to Apple

Burberry Group Plc named Christopher Bailey as chief executive officer to succeed Angela Ahrendts, tasking a designer with no board level experience to navigate the U.K.’s largest luxury company through a slowing industry.

Ahrendts, 53, who made Burberry a digital forerunner in the fashion world, will depart for Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. in the middle of 2014, leaving the 42-year-old Bailey to assume her role while retaining his former job as chief creative officer, the British company said today.