Viviane Paraschiv
For the past 15+ years, I've worked at the intersection of luxury, fashion, and technology, helping organisations navigate moments of transition. From new business models to new ways of building desire, relevance, and scale. After holding leadership roles within global luxury groups and working across international markets, I’m now COO at BioFluff, scaling a next-generation, plant-based materials company from innovation to industrial and commercial reality. Because beauty, softness, and desirability shouldn’t come at the expense of people’s health or the planet. Alongside this role, I remain a multi-hyphenate operator: - running StartupMill, a venture studio supporting early-stage and under represented founders with no-code, AI and automation - investing as an angel in founder-led businesses - and leading the UK alumni community for the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM), one of Europe’s leading fashion and luxury institutions. My work today focuses on scaling responsibly, translating innovation into adoption, and building bridges between materials science, creative industries, and business realities. I care *deeply* (hello Capricorns!) about authentic leadership, supporting women and moms building ambitious careers, and creating meaningful cross-border connections especially with Romania, my mother land.
World’s first 100% plant based alternative to fur, shearling, and plush. Sourced in Europe. Made in Italy. LVMH Innovation Awards finalists in 2022. Collaborated with Ganni, Stella McCartney, RedDuo, Aifunghi, and others. Featured in Vogue Business, Forbes, WWD, Financial Times, BoF, Dezeen, WGSN, BBC.
A venture studio for the new era combining low-code development, automation, and AI services to accelerate innovation. From digital product development to system design and growth consulting, we build the infrastructure companies need for sustainable growth and operational efficiency. Portfolio: * Social Southmayd (UK) * Levita Magic (Belgium) * Balena Science (Milan/Israel) * IONNYK (Belgium) * NEOM (Saudi Arabia) * Castle of Babylon (Belgium)
• Delivered 50% YoY revenue growth while scaling international operations. • Grew the team from 6 to 14 people in two years, building a high-performing commercial organisation. • Opened New York and Paris operations, led international expansion and launched two new products. • Designed the commercial infrastructure by implementing CRM, pipeline management tools and scalable sales enablement.
- Working alongside all senior leadership to maximise profitable growth using various trade levers within the Farfetch Group. Responsible for day-to-day trade targets and strategic projects. Delivering +40% YoY growth and ¼ of the Farfetch platform revenue - Establishing growth targets, tracking business milestones and KPI’s in close collaboration with finance and trade teams. Changing reporting structure from ‘teams to themes’, focusing on 4 main targets : growth, acquisition, retention, excellence - Leading teams to analyse the health of the Private Client business unit and develop recommendations to drive efficiencies & growth. Introduced entire team to Monday.com to drive efficiencies and reporting transparency, developed insights on the value of a stylist impacting recruitment strategy for Private Clients - Identifying new business models and innovation projects to improve sales team or customer experience, driving our “Only on Farfetch” proposition eg. - Scaling team from 1 to 4 direct report across London and Hong Kong
Ccrave is a circular lifestyle content and commerce platform with a mission to be a catalyst for the circular economy revolution in the fashion, home and lifestyle categories.
Garmentry is the UK's first men's luxury clothing rental platform
The Twist Club is a fun, interactive, hybrid dining and virtual conversation experience bringing together people who seek purposeful discomfort. - Built The Twist Supper Club community up to 250 active members through interactive and conversational experiences and scaled the business to profitable growth after 6 months - Delivered 25+ hybrid events online and in person (B2B and B2C) and negotiated 10+ brand collaborations with food and beverage partners eg. Fair drinks, Solaro Gin, Little Pasta Company, Superfood Africa - Set up all operations and internal processes to support business growth and strategic planning using Notion and Circle. Hired and trained various freelance partners to our standards : 1 x social media assistant, 3 x visual designers aka ‘scribes’ and 2 x hybrid hosts
Working with the Store of the Future team on the retail opportunity for luxury Projects - Leading the Augmented Retail (now Luxury New Retail) long term strategy for Farfetch with C-suite and senior stakeholders within the business - Project management of the new Browns Brook Street flagship opened in April 2021 in the middle of Mayfair - Building and implementing a Change Management framework to our Farfetch Platform Solution partners (Browns East, Browns Brook Street, Chanel, etc) - Internal transformation to support luxury industry & consumer knowledge by all Farfetchers
Leading growth and activation of the UK alumni community, fostering meaningful connections between fashion, luxury, and creative industry leaders, and supporting IFM’s international presence through events, partnerships, and knowledge sharing.
Fashion Conversations creates authentic relations among fashion professionals to elevate our knowledge and share resources and opportunities. The community includes founders, leaders and talented industry professionals discussing ideas on new business models, solution-driven technology and the need for social and environmental action to help build a positive and sustainable future of the industry. In 2023, we're building a DAO and other very cool things. Get in touch if you want to know more!
Mentoring at Farfetch's Dream Assembly accelerator program since the second cohort - Helping select the startups who will be invited to join the program - Creating multiple sessions during the program that will help the startups understand the retail of the future opportunity - Discussing and challenging them during 1:1 sessions (but always with a smile!)
Curate networking dinners, connecting professionals, entrepreneurs and speakers from the fashion & luxury / tech scene to create a strong community around these topics. Promote events on social media. Engage with previous and future participants on a regular basis to create a community of forward and like minded people. Continuously review events to refine TableCrowd experience.
Luxury New Retail is about revolutionising the way the luxury consumer shops combining physical and digital retail seamlessly, enabled by data and humans, augmented by technology and the brand DNA. Working closely with Susanne Tide-Frater and the Farfetch teams to develop internally the retail mindset powered by Farfetch. Collaborating actively with C-suite and senior leadership within Browns Fashion, Innovation, Strategy, Dream Assembly, Farfetch Platform Solutions, Private Client and others to work together towards the retail opportunity of the future. Projects : - Project Manager of the new Browns Fashion flagship opening in 2020 - Integrated the Augmented Retail vision and retail knowledge into the induction program for new joiners at Farfetch and Browns - Implemented new ways of working & training within Browns to enable the full Augmented Retail vision to come to life in their Browns East store - Launched the new VIC strategy for Browns Fashion with a multichannel mindset in close collaboration with senior leaders and their teams
Have FA/TE focuses on Fashion, Retail & Technology experiences. Advising companies on how to perfectly combine those three elements together to form strong client marketing strategies. Clients include : Arkitaip, ThinSlices, Argonauts, Algean Partners
Client mindset - Created a client focused on-boarding plan and sessions delivered to more than 20 sales advisors and managers & daily coaching sessions with a total of 50+ sales advisors to drive their client retention strategy - Partnered with all department managers to ensure objectives are met through proactive strategies and consistency in the client experience - Drove change management of the whole store team to a “client first” mindset Digital transformation - Established the use of iPads as a key tool for the client advisors - Managed the launch of 5 apps to help sales associates with clienteling, product requests, access to product knowledge, endless aisle, made to measure ordering process Floor & Team management - Create & Managed shop floor of 7,000 square feet with up to 50 sales advisors - Client experience and satisfaction - client complaints, client appointment preparation - Created a team of 5 support sales associates assisting in creating a seamless client experience at all steps of the journey. Supporting the client advisors on operational aspect of the sale (sizing, compliance, payment, check-out, wrapping, delivery, etc)
Exceptional Clients Events • LV Fashion Shows: 5 events per year in France & other locations, featuring my selected 70+ clients per event • High End Jewelry and High Watchmaking events in target cities (Capri, Geneva, St Tropez), featuring 50 all-inclusive package clients • Managed 40+ private visits to Maison Asnières and Louis Vuitton Foundation, hosting over 400 clients per year • Creation of the overall Private Client Experience strategy for the "Volez Voguez Voyagez" Louis Vuitton exhibition. Managed 40+ visits & 3 cocktails evenings to the enjoyment of 1000+ clients in the space of 3 months Client Engagement Communication • Developed tailored engagement events & call to actions to support all 19 stores in client lead generation • Tailored client focused digital marketing (5-6 per month) & lifestyle brochures (3 per year) to develop potential clients Coaching & Training • Introduced to all French stores a Salesforce-based internal Sales mobile app to help Client Advisors develop and retain customers • Conducted onboarding & training, ranging from 50 to 100 per year, with regular coaching of up to 500 internal staff • Developed & implemented monthly induction plans for customer advisors and managers to adopt a new internal customer sale approach focused on data analysis, relationship building and centralized sales touch points
• Establish the Client Services as a partner of brick and mortar stores in client development services • Launching innovation projects to improve and streamline the online and after sales customer experience for all 5 European Louis Vuitton websites (email service, online chat, tax refund, exchanges and complaints) • Created Client Development strategy for all digital clients in 5 countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) and started partnerships with stores and headquarters to offer experiences and reward those clients • Team management of 5
• Commercial management of men and women ready-to-wear collections, showroom management, collection performance analysis, worldwide product allocation driving collections sales through and production efficiency • Coordination of 4 worldwide business conferences showcasing global sales strategy and latest collections, shipping 1000 skus on 4 continents
Viviane is a great partner to work with. She is clever, hard worker and pragmatic. She enjoys embracing new challenges and leading ambitious projects. She is used to operate in international environments and has the talent to create strong networks and federate teams around her missions. Viviane is open-minded, curious and driven by the desire to bring innovation and new ideas in any project she is managing.