Yves Carcelle | Former Vuitton CEO, 66

Yves Carcelle, 66, the former chief executive officer who turned Louis Vuitton into the world's largest and most valuable luxury brand, died Sunday following a long illness.

He was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year and died in Paris, Women's Wear Daily reported.

Mr. Carcelle, who spent much of his career traveling the world looking for the next Vuitton outpost, became head of the brand in 1990, a year after joining LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which owns Vuitton, and set about transforming the trunk maker into LVMH's biggest and most profitable label. He hired Marc Jacobs as artistic director in 1997 and expanded Vuitton into ready-to-wear and, more recently, fine jewelry, while opening shops from Las Vegas to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. - Bloomberg