Paul Charron: Latest 7th Ave Exec to Join Forces of Private Equity

Paul Charron, former chairman and chief executive officer of Liz Claiborne Inc., heads back to work as the new senior adviser at Warburg Pincus, the global private equity firm, reports WWD. Charron says he'll consult as he has more interest and skill running companies and evaluating acquisitions, so he will counsel the team of Warburg specialists in identifing and evaluating potential acquisitions. He will be involved in the consumer products sector on a part-time basis. Charron joined the Liz Claiborne company in 1994 as vice chairman and chief operating officer. One year later he became president and chief executive officer, and was elected chairman in 1996. Although he was under contract at Liz to consult since that time, sources said that he has done little. From the tone of a Business Week article written in 2004, it sounds as though Charron will fit right in with the banker set.

"Although he runs Liz Claiborne Inc. (LIZ ), one of the largest apparel companies in the country, and although his office towers above New York's Seventh Avenue garment district, Paul R. Charron is no fashion plate. Favoring plain blue button-down shirts and silk ties, Charron, 61, is a wing-tip chief executive in a world of strappy high heels and $53 T-shirts."

Charron is the latest in a string of seventh avenue executives who have left retail and brand management to work with the private equity firms who, until recently, have been snapping up brands at a rapid rate.