The director of Fashion Exposed has sold her share in the Australian company she founded and will be departing next week.
Marie Kinsella, who launched the Australian Exhibitions & Conferences (AEC) organisation back in 1997, has run 24 cycles of the nation's premiere fashion trade event under the AEC umbrella since 2000.
She will depart on December 12 and Elissa Duke, who has been exhibition manager of Fashion Exposed for three years, will takeover the reins as the new exhibition director.
Harvey Stockbridge, who has a history of running exhibitions, trade shows and conferences in Europe and the US, has already taken over the role of managing director at AEC.
Speaking to Ragtrader, Stockbridge said he aims to bring a fresh set of eyes and wealth of international exhibition industry experience to Fashion Exposed.
“Moving forward, the whole industry faces challenges, but with the reputation and knowledge I've inherited from Marie, I know that Fashion Exposed will be there, leading the way as Australia's most successful fashion event,” Stockbridge said.
The event allows people from the fashion industry to meet, source and buy collections from more than 1,500 Australian and international brands all under one roof.
“My journey with Fashion Exposed has been tremendous and I am very proud of what has been achieved with a supportive board and a hard working team at Australian Exhibitions & Conferences,” Kinsella said. “Already there have been a number of internal changes with staff taking on new responsibilities and this will ensure the long-term viability of Fashion Exposed.”
The concept for Fashion Exposed, which was created to enhance and broaden business outcomes for the fashion industry to ensure growth within the sector, was founded in 1999 by four key industry suppliers and the AEC won the contract to deliver the event from its inception in 2000.
These suppliers were Breakaway apparel founder Gordon Black, Yarra Trail founder Tom Latham, John Gleeson from Duchamp and Graham Boyd from Boydex.
For more details on the changes check out Ragtrader's special Fashion Exposed edition, available from January 27.