EXCLUSIVE: Ace & Tate Names New CEO, Lex van de Vliet (2025)

PARIS – Amsterdam-based eyewear brand Ace & Tate is undergoing a C-suite makeover.

Founder Mark de Lange is stepping down from the chief executive officer role, handing the reins to eyewear executive Lex van de Vliet.

De Lange will shift his focus to brand and product development, as the direct-to-consumer glasses brand increases its focus on eye care.

The executive shakeup is set to position the brand for further European growth.

“We are doing really well in sunglasses and fashion, and there still lies a lot of opportunity for us to grow our optical business, which is very significant,” said van de Vliet. “If we double down on the optical side going forward, we really want to establish ourselves as the leading brand in the eye care segment.”

Ace & Tate now has 85 stores across Europe, mostly concentrated in four key territories of Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K., with additional outposts in Spain and Switzerland.

While it continues its fashion proposition, including collaborations with brands such as Ganni, Ace & Tate sees opportunity to grow alongside its customer cohort.

Prior to Ace & Tate, van de Vliet spent six years at optical distribution company GrandVision, which operates more than 7,400 stores and has since been acquired by EssilorLuxottica, as well as time in luxury hospitality and consulting at KPMG.

The appointment came about through mutual acquaintances and deep discussions about the optical market. Van de Vliet said it’s a “very natural, smooth transition.”

“Ace & Tatetodayis a completely different animal than when we first started out — and efficiently running a business at this scale demands a whole new set of skills compared to launching one,” said de Lange.

The two will continue to work closely together. “We spent months debating what’s next for Ace & Tate, and honestly, it felt like finding a late-stage cofounder,” added de Lange.

The former CEO added that bringing in new management “would be a massive win for the business — a real catalyst for the next phase of growth” while he concentrates on shaping the brand and refining the product.

While Ace & Tate started as a DTC Instagram brand, continuing to accelerate brick-and-mortar openings is the biggest opportunity for growth, van de Vliet believes.

“There’s eyewear and eye care,” he said. “And we want to very much pull [eye care] more to the foreground.”

That will include more personalized advice, expanded care, easy-to-understand prescriptions and integrated cross-border client services. For example, if a customer gets a pair of glasses in London, they can have them adjusted or exchanged in Amsterdam.

The new expansion into eye care is “basically not taking away from anything that we do on the fashion side,” van de Vliet said, and the collaborations strategy will remain the same. That fashion bent will continue to appeal to the 25- to 35-year-old demographic, while its original client base will need additional and “more complex” needs as they age and increasingly spend time staring at screens.

“Our focus is not so much changing, but in terms of the group of people that we want to be able to serve, it’s going to be more inclusive. The eye care journey needs to have a broader scope,” he said.

Customers also want to have more access to their information and manage their own care plan.

Ace & Tate will continue to build out their DTC retail network with its small, neighborhood approach to stores in its core market countries, before expanding further across Europe.

The U.S. “is definitely not off the table,” but it is not in the cards for the next two years at least.

Fiscal year 2024 results will not be made public until the second quarter, but van de Vliet said that financials were “in line with the plan” and sales “showed a lot of progress.”

The company produces primarily in China, Cambodia and Vietnam, with some models made in Italy. For its Asian production, the company is reexamining its network and diversification strategy as economic headwinds shift. “We are starting to really take a deeper look at if we are carrying any unnecessary risks in that supply chain,” he said.

The company recertified its B-Corp status and said that while final numbers on that scale are not yet available, van de Vliet said their scoring improved this time around. “We’re progressing in terms of our strategy to make [sustainability] even more part of our DNA,” he added. “It is a topic in every meeting.”