Nayla Hayek (born 1951) is a Swiss heiress, businesswoman and horse breeder. She is the chair of

The Swatch Group The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 through the merger of Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie, ASUAG and Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère, SSIH ...

and CEO of its subsidiary, the jeweler Harry Winston.

Early life

Hayek is the daughter of Lebanese-born Swiss businessman

Nicolas Hayek Nicolas George Hayek (19 February 1928 – 28 June 2010) was a Swiss businessman of Lebanese descent, and the co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of The Swatch Group. Early life and education Hayek was born the second of three children to ...

, the late founder of The Swatch Group. She has a younger brother, Nick Hayek Jr.

The Swatch Group

Hayek joined the board of The Swatch Group in 1995 and became its chair in 2010, after her father's death. Hayek became the CEO of

Harry Winston, Inc. Harry Winston, Inc. is an American luxury jeweler and producer of Swiss timepieces. The company was founded in 1932 as ''Harry H. Winston Jewels, Inc.'' and changed its name to ''Harry Winston Inc.'' in January 1936. The company is named after its ...

in May 2013, a few months after The Swatch Group acquired the company. The company bought the world's largest flawless blue diamond The Winston Blue in May 2014.

Horse breeding

Hayek stated that her passion for horses started when she was a child and worked to buy a

pony A pony is a type of small horse, usually measured under a specified height at maturity. Ponies often have thicker coats, manes and tails, compared to larger horses, and proportionally shorter legs, wider barrels, heavier , thicker necks and s ...

. Since then, she became an international

Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( , DIN 31635, DMG ''al-ḥiṣān al-ʿarabī'') is a horse breed, breed of horse with historic roots on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easi ...

judge and owns over 60 purebred Arabian horses. Hayek's activity as a horse breeder and expert in Egyptian horses helps the group build and maintain contacts with the Middle East.

Personal

She was married to Swiss industrialist Roland Weber and eventually divorced. She and her ex-husband have a son, Dr. Marc Alexander Hayek, who is now on the executive group management board of the Swatch Group, taking charge of

Blancpain Blancpain SA () is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, headquartered in Paudex/Le Brassus, Switzerland. It designs, manufactures, distributes, and sells prestige and luxury mechanical watches. Founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, Swit ...

, Breguet,

Glashütte Glashütte [] is a town in Saxony, Germany, known as the birthplace of the German watchmaking industry and has a population of about 7,000. Historically, it was first mentioned in a document circa 1445. In January 2008, the former municipality Re ...

, Jaquet Droz, and Swatch Group Central and South America.

References

Living people 1951 births 20th-century Swiss businesswomen 20th-century Swiss businesspeople 21st-century Swiss businesswomen 21st-century Swiss businesspeople Horse breeders Swiss people of Lebanese descent {{Switzerland-business-bio-stub