Esprit leadership resigns: William Pak and Christin Su Yi Chiu to exit group
Esprit continues to face turmoil. Following the insolvency of its European entities and a shift away from its traditional retail model, Esprit Holdings Limited has announced further significant changes to its senior management just before the year's end.
The Hong Kong-listed fashion group has announced that chairwoman Christin Su Yi Chiu and executive director William Pak resigned from their positions on December 19, 2025. Chiu recently served as executive director and chairwoman of the board, while Pak was an executive director. Both have cited other business commitments as the reason for their departure. According to the company, there are no disagreements with the board.
Pak's influence during restructuring
Pak played a central role in Esprit's strategic realignment. The former investment banker joined Esprit in September 2021 as chief operating officer (COO). After CEO Mark Daley left the company in less than a year, Pak took over as interim head of the group in autumn 2021. He was appointed permanent CEO on March 1, 2022, while also retaining his roles as executive director and COO.
Pak is married to Christin Su Yi Chiu, who was chairwoman of the board at the time.
New leadership and internal promotions
Esprit is also restructuring its leadership at the same time. Current executive director Bradley Stephen Wright will take over as acting chairman of the board, effective December 19, 2025. Additionally, two executives from within the group will join the board. Liu Jianyi, previously senior vice president of China operations, and Li Hui, head of legal for Asia, have been appointed as executive directors.
The composition of the board committees is also being adjusted. With the departure of Chiu and Pak, several committees will lose their current members, while Wright will take over as chairman of the nomination committee. Liu and Li will join the General Committee.
Investigations surrounding insolvency
This latest leadership change comes as the fashion group's crisis deepens. Following the insolvency of key European entities in 2024, the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office is now investigating Esprit. A spokesperson for the authority confirmed to FashionUnited that there is an initial suspicion of criminal conduct. It remains unclear who is being investigated and what specific allegations are under review.
According to reports from Manager Magazin in September 2025, the investigation is focused on several issues. These include a possible delay in filing for insolvency, tax law matters, and the transfer of assets. Extensive data analysis has reportedly been conducted on behalf of the administrator, Lucas Flöther. The investigation is examining transfers of business shares and trademark rights from Germany to the British Virgin Islands via the US in late 2023. This occurred at a time when Esprit may have already been insolvent in Germany. Furthermore, tax credits from German entities were allegedly transferred abroad in spring 2024. Investigators are also reviewing a payment in the tens of millions from a previous legal dispute, which was allegedly made to Esprit.
Editor's note: FashionUnited contacted the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office, the law firm Flöther & Wissing, and a spokesperson for Esprit for comment in September. No response has been received to date.
This article was translated to English using an AI tool.
FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com