Pentland Brands has announced the appointment of Chirag Patel as chief operating officer. This veteran of the group takes over some of the responsibilities of Andy Long, the company's chief executive, who served as COO between 2012 and 2014 and retained the post after his appointment of CEO in 2014. Patel was most recently the group's global strategy & portfolio chief. He will continue to lead strategy and planning, handling also the acquisition of new brands and licenses. In this position, which he assumed last year, Patel was instrumental in arranging Pentland's investment in SeeVees and the recent footwear joint venture deal between Pentland and Lacoste. After working in sales and marketing for Datamonitor and Power Plate International, Patel joined Pentland in 2011 as global vice president of marketing and product for Mitre International. He was promoted to managing director of the brand in 2013. In the next year, he become global vice president of product and marketing at Lacoste Chaussures