Fashion Talent on the Move
2020-10-09
Notable companies in this week’s edition: Adidas, American Eagle, Aritzia, Backcountry.com, Boohoo, Burlington Stores, Burton, Children’s Place (The), Clarks, Diesel, Ermenegildo Zegna, Farfetch, Foot Locker, Gucci (Kering), J.Jill, Li & Fung, Lululemon, Marimekko, Marks & Spencer, Mothercare, Old Navy (Gap), Ralph Laruen, REI, Roberto Cavalli, Rue21, Skechers, SMCP, Target, Tilly’s, Victoria’s Secret (L Brands), Walmart.
BOARD
The Children’s Place added Tracey R. Griffin to its Board. Griffin, who is black, is currently CFO & COO at online custom framing brand Framebridge. Earlier, she held various finance roles at Kendra Scott and Pandora Americas.
Boohoo has said that it is adding two new Board Directors, with one of those people having a background in environmental, social, and governance issues.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
After nearly a year vacant, J.Jill has filled its CEO role by hiring former company alum Claire Spofford. Spofford, who will join by mid-February, was most recently President of Cornerstone Brands. Earlier in her career, she was Chief Marketing Officer at J.Jill. The company’s stock price is now up about 6% on the news, trading at $0.62.
I’d thought Nancy Green’s appointment as CEO to Gap’s Old Navy division back in March was full-time. Apparently, it was interim, and they’ve now officially given her the title permanently.
Li & Fung announced that Joseph Phi, Group President, would assume the Group CEO role of the company. Phi, who has been at the company since it acquired his prior employer in 2011, replaces company namesake and 4th generation leader Spencer Fung.
WWD is reporting that Ennio Fontana has joined Roberto Cavalli as General Manager. The post had been vacant since last month. Fontana was previously in a similar role over at Philipp Plein.
Walmart has recruited Casey Carl as its EVP & Chief Omni Strategy & Operations Officer. Carl, who has been consulting for the last few years, was previously at Target for about 20 years, most recently as its Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer.
Ralph Lauren named former Tapestry exec Zeynep Schoenwaelder as its SVP Chief Strategy Officer & Chief of Staff. She had been at Tapestry for the past decade in various Insights and Analytics roles.
Christina Foddis is now President Asia-Pacific at Ermenegildo Zegna. He was in a similar role at Ferragamo, having worked there for more than a decade.
VACANT CEO TRACKER
Banana Republic (Gap Inc.) - Sep’2020
Bonmarché (Peacocks) - Dec'2019
Calida Group - Sep’2020
Coach (Tapestry) - Mar’2020
Debenhams - Mar’2020
Emilio Pucci - Jan'2019
Escada - Jan’2020
Greats (Steven Madden) - Sep’2020
Hunter - Jun’2020
Laura Ashley - Jun’2020
Mothercare - Jan’2020
Outdoor Voices - Feb’2020
PSEB Group - Jan’2020
Roberto Cavalli - Sep’2020
RYU Apparel - Mar’2020
Tapestry - Jul’2020
TopShop (Arcadia) - Dec'2019
Vince Holding - Aug’2020
Yoox Net-a-Porter Group (Richemont)- Mar’2020
Does anybody know what’s going with these leader-less companies? Are they competing for Longest Vacant Corner Office?
Aspinal of London - Nov'2018
Destination Maternity - Jun'2019
Duluth Trading Co. - Sep'2019
Jack Wills - Aug'2019
Jigsaw - Jan'2019
Kookaï - Mar'2019
LXRandCo - Sep'2019
Monsoon Accessorize - Aug'2019
The Row - Oct'2019
Wolford - Oct'2019
BANKRUPTCIES
This past week:
None.
Possibly in the hopper…
** Clarks
Aspinal of London
The Children’s Place
Designer Brands
Francesca’s
Harvey Nichols
Iconix Brand Group
Lands’ End
Nordstrom
River Island
MOVES (IN BULK)
--
MERCH/SALES/P&A/PRODUCTION
Colleen Clayton is now at Kering-owned Gucci, as VP Client Engagement. She’s held similar roles at Louis Vuitton and Hermès.
Stein Mart merchant Lauren Krug has joined Burlington Stores as VP DMM.
Burlington Stores has also recruited TJX exec Jonathan Savoy as VP Merchandise Planning.
Mothercare tapped Karen Tyler as its Chief Product Officer. She’s held a variety of Childrens and Maternity positions throughout her career.
Backcountry.comnamed Patrick Dredden as SVP Planning. He had been consulting for the past few years, but earlier had stints at Fossil Group, Warnaco, and Urban Outfitters. Guess who else worked at Urban Outfitters decades ago? Newly-minted CEO Melanie Cox.
In yet another nod to hiring who you know, Boohoo CEO John Lyttle has added former Primark co-worker Andrew Reaney to be its Sourcing Director. Reaney had been at Primark from 2011 up until about a year ago.
CREATIVE/DESIGN
Burton tapped Adrian Josef Margelist to be its new Executive Creative Director, based in Zurich, Switzerland (close to the slopes and, conveniently, it’s his hometown…). Margelist, who will report to CEO John Lacy, was most recently Chief Creative Officer at Mammut.
Glenn Martens has joined Diesel as Creative Director. He has been at Parisian brand Y/Project for the past several years.
We note the passing of iconic fashion designer Kenzo Takada, age 81. He succumbed to complications from Covid-19.
MARKETING/DIGITAL
Darin Rabb has joined Lululemon as SVP Global Brand Experience. He had spent the bulk of his career at Nike.
Marks & Spencer named Gemma Lumsden to the newly-created role of Head of Optimization & Analytics, reporting to Stephen Langford (Director of M&S.com). Lumsden was most recently Head of Digital at Next.
Burton named Kelly Murnaghan as SVP Global Marketing, reporting to CEO John Lacy. Murnaghan has worked at brands including Converse and Vans.
Maurice Cooper is now SVP Brand & Category Marketing at Target. He has held various marketing roles at InterContinental Hotels and Coca-Cola.
Tinesha Craig has also joined Target as VP Enterprise Insights. For the past several years she was at advertising firm FCB in various analytics roles.
L Brands has moved Jiting “Chris” Liu into the role of VP Greater China, Digital Commerce for its Victoria’s Secret division. He was previously in the company’s Mast division since 2016, having earlier worked at Nike, Sephora, and Starbucks.
Dana Toering is now VP Walmart Media Group Canada at Walmart. He was most recently at Accenture Interactive.
Formerly at Adidas, Krystofer Glober has joined Tilly’s as VP Marketing & Innovation.
Marimekko named Sanna-Kaisa Niikko as its Chief Marketing Officer. She’s been at the company since 2005.
STORES/TECHNOLOGY/OPS/SUPPLY CHAIN
Foot Locker filed with the SEC the resignation of its Chief Information & Customer Connectivity Officer Pawan Verma, effective at the end of this month. Verma, who is leaving to pursue another opportunity, had been at the footwear retailer for five years.
After about a 20 year hiatus, John Owen has returned to Walmart, this time as VP Store Layout and Space Productivity. His LinkedIn profile exclaims how excited he is to be returning to Northwest Arkansas…
Walmart has also hired Jonathan Burks as VP Global Public Policy, based in Washington, DC. His career includes stints on the staffs of various politicians and working at DC lobbying firms.
Bob Flannery joined American Eagle as SVP Global Logistics. He had been at Chico’s for the past couple of years, having earlier worked at Hot Topic, Amazon.com, and Kate Spade, among others. He went to Penn State University, so I suppose this is a bit of a geographic homecoming for him.
FINANCE
American pizza chain Papa John’s has recruited Ann Gugino as its CFO. Gugino was most recently SVP FP&A at Target for the past two years.
SMCP CFO & Operations Director Philippe Gautier is leaving to pursue other projects. Apparently, they have his replacement lined up, who will be joining in December. But no word yet on who this is going to be. Gautier had been at SMCP since 2015, having earlier worked at various Kering divisions.
Skechers named Sarin Collins as VP Finance, Global Corporate Controller. She had been consulting on her own for the past couple of years, but previously held a similar role at Nordstrom, having earlier worked at Microsoft.
Anthony “Tony” Carrabba has joined rue21 as VP & Corporate Controller. He was most recently at Westinghouse Electric Company, but earlier in his career worked at grocery chain Giant Eagle as well as Walt Disney.
Kate Wendt is now VP Strategy, Planning, and Sustainability at REI. She’s been there for several years, including a stint in 2019 as Interim CFO.
HR/LEGAL
Following this summer’s HR brouhaha at Adidas, the company has named Amanda Rajkumar as Head of HR, replacing Karen Parkin, who had resigned in June. Rajkumar was most recently at French bank BNP Paribas.
Amy Fletcher is now VP HR at L Brands division Victoria’s Secret. She’s been at the retailer for about a decade.
Former Holt Renfrew exec Matt Dallen is now VP Learning & Development at Aritzia.
Benjamin Gross has been recruited to Backcountry.com as Chief People Officer & General Counsel. He had been at rue21 for the past decade. Connecting the dots, recently-minted CEO Melanie Cox was interim CEO over at rue21 for several months in 2017.
Farfetch named Artem Ivanenko to be its Head of Learning Experience / Global. He has held various L&D roles at Uber, Apple, and Microsoft.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As we head into the final months (and quarter) of 2020, here’s a snapshot of where the fashion world stands in terms of Corner Office demographics.
CEOs continue to be overwhelmingly male (in what is an overwhelmingly female industry) — 83%.
Nearly 20% of tracked companies have named a new CEO this year.
For my analysis, I consider any CEO with <3yrs tenure to still be “new,” which means that nearly half (43%) of tracked companies’ CEOs fall under this category.
Companies continue to find CEOs from within (67%). Even in this year of major upheaval, CEO candidates are majority coming from within.
Lastly, if these 69 companies are considered a Jason Brown Fashion Index, say like the Dow Jones 100, the index would have lost 20% of its value in the past year.
ABOUT: I have 20 years of wide-ranging executive recruiting experience. As a consultant, my services include name generation, sourcing, industry talent mapping, crafting position descriptions, and developing thorough target lists. Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tjasonbrown.