CORRECT: Swatch Group Founder Hayak's Daughter Nayla To Lead Board

Two days after the death of Swatch Group AG (UHR.VX) founder and Chairman Nicolas G. Hayek the Swiss watch and luxury goods maker said Wednesday his daughter Nayla Hayek has been elected as his successor and will head the company's board.

Hayek died Monday from heart failure at the age of 82. He was one of Switzerland's most prominent managers and widely credited for saving the Swiss watch industry, which faced near-collapse due to Japanese competition in the 1970s before the popular Swatch plastic watch was launched under Hayek's stewardship.

Swatch said the board has unanimously voted in favor of Nayla Hayek, who was previously vice president of the board. The eight-member board includes her brother Nick Hayek, who is also Chief Executive of Swatch, former Swiss National Bank president Jean-Pierre Roth and Ernst Tanner, Chief Executive and Chairman of Swiss premium chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli.

Swatch said Nayla Hayek has prepared for the role over many years, has long-time experience within the board and has been also involved in various operational functions.

Nayla Hayek joined Swatch's board in 1995, where she has focused on promotional activities, took responsibility for the local organization in Dubai and India, and for luxury brand Balmain. She was made vice president earlier this year.

She also took over the operational leadership of a watch-making partnership Swatch formed with Tiffany & Co. whereby Swatch makes watches under the U.S. jewelry company's name. Tiffany is one of the many luxury brands within Swatch's portfolio, which includes Breguet, Omega and Rado.

Nayla Hayek's big passion is horse riding and breeding. In a rare interview in Swiss business magazine Finanz und Wirtschaft, she said she had bought her first pony as a youth paid for out of her own pocket.

Since then, Nayla Hayek has evolved into a horse breeding expert. She is a member of the World Arabian Horse Organization. Swatch said that "as international Arabian horse judge, Mrs Hayek's top-level contacts contribute to many of the business and promotional activities of the Swatch Group."

Nayla Hayek was born in Switzerland in 1951. She is divorced from Swiss industrial Roland Weber. Her only son Marc Alexander Hayek is a member of the executive management of Swatch and is responsible for brands such as Blancpain, Frederic Piguet, Deutsche Zifferblatt Manufaktur and for Swatch Group Panama and Swatch Group Middle East.

Neither Swatch nor Nayla Hayek could be immediately reached for further comment.

Analysts welcomed Nayla Hayek's appointment, saying the nomination shows that Swatch will remain a stable concern and firmly in the hands of the family. Swatch's shareholder structure is closely centered around the Hayek family. The late Nicholas G. Hayek and other investors, who constituted a pool, hold around 39% of the voting rights in the company.

Nicholas G. Hayek, who was born in 1928 in Lebanon and moved to Switzerland in 1949, founded Swatch, which previously was named Societe de Microelectronique et d'Horlogerie, or SMH, in 1983, merging two Swiss watch makers that were on the brink of collapse. The launch of the plastic watch Swatch, of which more than 300 million units have been sold so far, helped the Swiss watch industry recover and rekindle interest in the country's luxury watches.

-By Goran Mijuk, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]