Retail
Chico’s
Chico’s FAS Inc. appointed Bonnie Brooks as CEO and president, and noted she will remain a member of the Chico’s FAS board. The company said that Karen McKibbin, Chico’s brand president, tendered her resignation earlier this week to pursue other opportunities.
From 2014 to 2016, Brooks served as vice chair of Hudson’s Bay Company, a fashion retail group operating through multiple banners, including Hudson’s Bay, Home Outfitters, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Galeria Kaufhof.
Responsibility for the company’s apparel brands was consolidated under Molly Langenstein, a 30-year retail industry veteran who was named president, Apparel Group, effective Aug. 1. Langenstein will oversee all business activities for the Chico’s and White House Black Market brands. She joins the company after nearly three decades with Macy’s Inc., where she most recently served as general business manager, ready-to-wear.
The company’s intimate brands, Soma and TellTale, will continue to be led by Mary van Praag, president, Intimates Group.
As of May 4, the company operated 1,410 stores in the U.S. and Canada, and sold merchandise through 84 international franchise locations in Mexico and one domestic franchise airport store. The company’s merchandise is also available at chicos.com, chicosofftherack.com, whbm.com, soma.com and mytelltale.com.
Target Corp. named Hari Govind as senior vice president of infrastructure and operations for the company’s technology team.
In this role, Govind will oversee cloud-and-compute capabilities, network connectivity and operations for the technology that powers Target’s stores, digital channels, distribution centers and office locations. He will report to Mike McNamara, Target’s executive vice president and chief information officer.
Related Stories
Govind joins Target from Facebook, where he was the group manager on the Infrastructure team, leading strategy and execution to help scale platforms for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. Prior to that, Govind worked at Microsoft Corp. and Honeywell International.
Hibbett Sports
Hibbett Sports Inc. announced the appointments of Lorna Nagler and Dorlisa Flur to the company’s board of directors. The appointments increase the size of the board to 10.
Nagler will serve on the compensation committee and Flur will serve on the audit committee. Nagler has served on the board of Ulta Beauty since 2009. She was president of Bealls Department Stores from 2011 to 2016, and was previously CEO of Christopher & Banks Corp.
Flur is currently an independent senior advisor and was previously chief strategy and transformation officer at Southeastern Grocers Inc.
Hibbett Sports, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., has more than 1,100 stores under the Hibbett Sports and City Gear banners.
Kohl’s
Kohl’s Corp. announced that its board of directors increased its size to 11 members and elected Michael Bender to fill the new seat.
Bender has been elected to a term expiring at Kohl’s 2020 annual shareholders meeting and will be eligible for re-election by Kohl’s shareholders at that time. He will initially serve on the board’s audit and governance and nominating committees.
Bender is president and CEO of Eyemart Express, an eyecare retailer. Previously, Bender held a number of successive management positions at Walmart Inc. over eight years, having most recently served as chief operating officer of global e-commerce.
Altar’d State
Altar’d State appointed Kim Parr to the newly created position of vice president of merchandising for A’Beautiful Soul, a brand for women sizes 10 to 24.
Parr most recently worked at Talbots in the same capacity, where she supported its migration to an omni merchandising structure and strategized the launch of RSVP by Talbots, an occasion segment for the brand.
Altar’d State, headquartered in Maryville, Tenn., has more than 100 boutiques throughout the Midwest, South, Mid-Atlantic, West and Northeast regions.
Brands
Kontoor Brands Inc. parent company of Wrangler, Lee and Rock & Republic, named Simon Fisher to the position of managing director of Kontoor Brands for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
Fisher will report to Tom Waldron, vice president and global brand president of Wrangler. In this role, Fisher will lead the Lee and Wrangler business in EMEA, translating Kontoor’s global business strategy into accelerated regional brand growth and consumer engagement. He will also be responsible for identifying and pursuing new markets and product categories for both the Lee and Wrangler brands.
Fisher joins Kontoor Brands from Spyder Active Sports, a manufacturer of high-end ski apparel, where he served as general manager, EMEA. He previously served in several roles with increasing responsibility for the jeanswear business in Europe for VF Corp. Kontoor Brands split from VF Corp. earlier this year.
The North Face
The North Face appointed Steve Lesnard as global vice president of marketing and Tina Rolén as vice president of marketing for The North Face EMEA.
Most recently, Lesnard served as global vice president and general manager for the Nike Running business, where he ran global product launches such as Vapormax, Nike React and Breaking 2.
Rolén joins The North Face from fellow VF Corp. brand Vans, where she has been working as vice president of marketing for Vans EMEA since September.
Lululemon
Lululemon Athletica Inc. announced that Stephanie Ferris, chief financial officer (CFO) of payment processing company Worldpay Inc., was appointed to the company’s board of directors.
At Worldpay, Ferris is responsible for transforming the U.S. payment processor into a global fintech leader. Previously, she served as CFO at Vantiv.