Notable companies in this week’s edition: All We Wear Group, Amazon.com, Away, Calvin Klein (PVH), Delvaux (First Heritage Brands), Dick’s Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney, Kurt Geiger, Macy’s, Pentland Brands, StockX, Superdry, Trussardi, URBN Urban Outfitters, Inc., Valentino, VF Corp.
BOARD
Dick’s Sporting Goods President Lauren Hobart has joined the Board of Yum! Brands, effective next month.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Italian brand Trussardi named Sebastian Suhl as its new CEO, starting later this month. Suhl was most recently an exec at Valentino up until 2019, having earlier been CEO of Marc Jacobs International. Suhl has a track record of taking fashion houses public, so…
Charlotte Cox has been named President EMEA at Pentland Brands. She was most recently Brand Director for the company’s Canterbury and Mitre brands. Replacing her in her former role is Jodie Soussan, who has been at the company since 2018. Soussan will eventually report to Penny Harriman, the incoming Chief Marketing Officer (before the end of the year).
Amazon.com named Ruth Diaz as Head of Fashion, Europe. She’s been at the company for nearly a decade. She’s replacing John Boumphrey, who is becoming UK Country Manager.
Away Co-CEO & Founder, Steph Korey, will be stepping down, but remain on the Board. Fellow Co-CEO Stuart Haselden, who had joined in January, will finally get the big office to himself.
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…
Aspinal of London
The Children’s Place
Clarks
Designer Brands
Francesca’s
Harvey Nichols
Iconix Brand Group
Lands’ End
Nordstrom
River Island
MOVES (IN BULK)
J.C. Penney is inching forward with closing about 144 stores (previously announced earlier this summer) — some very rough math on my part estimates that those stores equate to about 14,000 employees.
Kurt Geiger announced that the company is planning another 500 lay-offs early next year. The company is blaming the UK’s end to tax-free shopping on December 31st. Hey—it’s as good an excuse as any, I suppose.
All We Wear Group (AKA Pepe Jeans) will be closing about 50 stores as part of its transformation strategy “Re:set” (please tell me they didn’t pay someone to think of that project name…). Anyways, they employ around 3,000 employees and the store closures represent 10% of that headcount.
URBN Urban Outfitters, Inc. announced a number of management changes, with an unsurprisingly high number of those being founding family members:
Calvin Hollinger: COO stepping down by the end of the month to pursue other opportunities; had survived…errr… been there for about 16 years.
Frank Conforti: CFO being promoted to Hollinger’s COO role, as well as adding the title of Co-President. Conforti will add Fulfillment, Logistics, Development, Legal, and HR. His successor is being searched for now. I worked there on the search to find Conforti’s predecessor—good luck to anyone that has to do that search!
Meg Hayne: Husband of Founder Dick Hayne, will remain Chief Creative Officer but will also become a Co-President like Conforti (you two play nicely, now!). All three of the company’s main three brands and its sourcing department will report to her.
Sheila Harrington: Promoted to Global CEO of Free People.
Hillary Super: Promoted to Global CEO of Anthropologie.
Azeez Hayne: Nephew of Founder Dick Hayne, promoted to Chief Administrative Officer; will remain General Counsel; he’ll add HR to his world.
Dave Hayne: Son of Founder Dick Hayne, is promoted to Chief Technology Officer, keeping his current responsibility for the Nuuly division (some say he’s being groomed for the CEO position, considering that his dad is about 73 years old).
Not to be outdone, VF made one of its ever-so-often “moves in bulk” announcements. With these changes, Vans, The North Face, Timberland, and Emerging Brands will all report to CEO Steve Rendle. The changes include:
Doug Palladini: Global Brand President, Vans.
Steve Murray: Named Global Brand President, The North Face; was President Americas for VF. Replaces Arne Arens who is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Murray’s prior position is being eliminated.
Martino Scabbia Guerrini: President EMEA Region and Interim Global Brand President, Timberland. A search is underway for a permanent Global Brand President.
Kevin Bailey: President, APAC and Emerging Brands.
MERCH/SALES/P&A/PRODUCTION
PVH-owned Calvin Klein named Jacob Jordan as its Global Chief Merchant and Product Strategist. He had been consulting at the company since last May. In his new role, he’ll report to CEO Cheryl Abel-Hodges. Prior to PVH, he had been at Apple for about five years, having earlier worked at LVMH and other luxury houses.
CREATIVE/DESIGN
First Heritage Brands-owned (AKA Li & Fung) Delvaux Artistic Director, Christina Zeller, is stepping down after three years in the role and nearly a decade at the company. No word on who is replacing her (if anyone).
MARKETING/DIGITAL
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STORES/TECHNOLOGY/OPS/SUPPLY CHAIN
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FINANCE
Macy’s announced the hiring of Adrian Mitchell to be its new CFO, effective next month. Mitchell was most recently a Managing Director & Partner at Boston Consulting Group, having earlier worked at Target, Crate & Barrel, and McKinsey. Current interim CFO Felicia Williams is joining the CEO Action for Racial Equity as a Macy’s Fellow. Although she’ll remain a Macy’s colleague, she will essentially be full-time at the CEO Action organization.
Superdry CFO Nick Gresham is leaving the company, effective immediately. A search is underway to find his replacement. Gresham had been there since June of last year, originally as interim.
HR/LEGAL
Rosa Santamaria Maurizio has been named CHRO of Valentino, reporting to CEO Jacopo Venturini. Maurizio spent much of her career in various HR roles at American Express.
StockX tapped Leander LeSure as its first-ever Chief People Officer. He’s worked at companies including Getty Images and, until May of this year, was CHRO at Herman Miller. He also spent a decade at that perpetual fountain of good HR people, American Express.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I have to give a shoutout (and hope you do, too!) to Bolt, who turns one year old today. Bolt is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. While often confused for a pit bull (generally in an accusatory way), he’s no more related to that breed as, say, a “bull” dog is.
Although he’s alllll muscle, has boundless energy, and sometimes likes to play rough, the breed in the UK is actually given the nickname “Nanny Dog” because it is so good with children. (P.S. Want more of him? You can follow his hashtag on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/boltthestafford/)
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.