Since joining Ralph Lauren as chief creative and marketing officer in 2000, David Lauren, the middle child of the luxury label’s namesake designer, has overseen several of the brand’s digital campaigns and online innovations. Today, he serves as the chief innovation officer and vice chairman of the company his father founded nearly 50 years ago.
A pioneering force in the integration of commerce and content — a concept the young executive dubbed as "merchantainment" — Lauren played an instrumental role in launching initiatives such as the Ralph Lauren Magazine and Ralph Lauren TV and in 2001 launched ralphlauren.com, making the brand one of the first to introduce an e-commerce website within the luxury industry. In August 2013, Lauren was appointed to the company’s board of directors as executive vice-president of global advertising, marketing and communications.
Prior to joining the company Lauren launched served as president and editor-in-chief of Swing, a monthly magazine offering a youthful take on current affairs and news. Founded in his sophomore year at Duke University, in 1994, following his graduation, Swing was acquired by publishers Hachette Filipacchi and over the course of the next four years Lauren built up a circulation of 200,000 before folding in 1998.
Actively involved in the company’s philanthropic and charitable organisations, Lauren serves as president of the Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation, overseeing the group’s Pink Pony fund, the Polo Jeans G.I.V.E. programme (which has evolved into the Ralph Lauren Volunteer programme) and the Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, as well as serving on the board of trustees for the Ralph Lauren Centre for Cancer Care and Prevention in Harlem.
