Cartier, the Paris-based international luxury-goods company, has appointed Frédéric de Narp, a longtime employee, as president and chief executive officer of Cartier North America, effective Sept. 1, 2005. He will replace Stanislas de Quercize, who will head Van Cleef & Arpels International in Paris.

The announcement was made by Bernard Fornas, president and CEO of Cartier International, who cited de Narp’s “extensive international experience, particularly in the retail business.”

De Narp has been with Cartier since 1991. He was named manager of its Ginza boutique in Tokyo in 1994, before becoming retail manager of Cartier Switzerland, where he oversaw 11 boutiques. In 1998 he was promoted to retail manager of Cartier Italy and, in 2000 became CEO, overseeing 16 boutiques and 165 authorized dealers.

De Narp holds a master’s degree in sciences and techniques of international business, with a focus on Asian commerce, from the University of Le Havre in France. He is co-founder of NeedYou, a humanitarian organization which aids abandoned children in Cambodia, Haiti, Rwanda, and Brazil. In 1996, he took a sabbatical to work exclusively for it.

Born in Brittany in France, de Narp is fluent in French, English, Italian, and Japanese. He and his wife and five children will move to the United States this summer.

Founded in 1847, the House of Cartier has served as crown jeweler to 19 royal houses. It designs, manufactures, and distributes a broad range of luxury products, including jewelry, watches, eyewear, fragrance, writing instruments, lighters, leather goods, and scarves. It has 27 stores in the United States, and two in Canada. Cartier is owned by Richemont, the Swiss luxury-goods group.

JCK