Brands
Wrangler
Wrangler, a Kontoor Brands brand, appointed Holly Wheeler to vice president of global brand marketing.
In this newly created position, Wheeler will lead the brand’s global marketing vision focused on creating and executing breakthrough marketing strategies and initiatives designed to produce engaging, innovative experiences for consumers, while driving brand growth and increasing the brand’s equity globally.
Wheeler, previously senior director of marketing for the brand, has been with the company since 2017. At Wrangler, Wheeler has collaborated with senior leadership to identify business opportunities and go-to-market strategies including identifying key partnerships, such as Wrangler Lil Nas X. Prior to joining Wrangler, Wheeler was group account director at Toth & Co, a Boston-based marketing and advertising agency where she led accounts including Wrangler, NYDJ, Ked’s, and Chinese Laundry.
Nike
Nike Inc. announced a series of senior leadership changes.
Heidi O’Neill, president of Nike Direct, will become president of consumer and marketplace on April 1, succeeding Elliott Hill, who is retiring from Nike.
Andy Campion, currently executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), will become chief operating officer, also effective April 1. He will succeed Eric Sprunk, who is retiring from Nike.
Matthew Friend, currently CFO of operating segments and vice president of investor relations, will become CFO for Nike Inc.
O’Neill will lead the Nike brand’s four geographic operating regions: North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Greater China, and Asia Pacific and Latin America (APLA). O’Neill will also lead Nike’s global sales and Nike Direct organizations.
Campion will lead Nike’s global technology and digital transformation, sourcing and manufacturing, demand and supply management, distribution and logistics, procurement, sustainability, and workplace design and connectivity.
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Adidas
The supervisory board of Adidas AG intends to elect Thomas Rabe, chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann, as its chairman following the company’s annual general meeting on May 14.
Rabe is to succeed Igor Landau as chairman. Rabe has been a member of the Adidas Supervisory Board since May 9, 2019, and its deputy chairman. He was appointed to the executive board of Bertelsmann, a global media, services and education company, as CFO in 2006. He has been chairman and CEO there since 2012.
Landau has been a member of the supervisory board of Adidas since 2004 and its chairman since 2009. In addition, Christian Klein, co-CEO of SAP SE, is to be proposed for election to the supervisory board.
Wolverine
Wolverine World Wide Inc. appointed Joelle Grunberg as global president of Sperry and Tom Kennedy as global president of the Wolverine brand.
Grunberg joins Wolverine Worldwide from Lacoste, where she served as president and CEO of North and Central America. Kennedy has spent the past three years in Boston leading Sperry and will return to Michigan for his new role with the Wolverine brand, in addition to overseeing the company’s licensing group and becoming a member of its acquisitions team. Kennedy joined Wolverine Worldwide in 2015 as president of apparel and accessories before taking the helm of Sperry in 2017.
In addition to Wolverine and Sperry, Wolverine World Wide’s portfolio of footwear and brands includes Merrell, Hush Puppies, Saucony, Keds, Stride Rite, Chaco, Bates and Hytest. The company is also the global footwear licensee of Cat and Harley-Davidson.
Gildan
Gildan Activewear’s board of directors appointed Luc Jobin as a director. Jobin has had a career as a business leader in Canada spanning over 30 years.
He retired from Canadian National Railway Company as president and CEO in 2018. Prior to that, Jobin was executive vice president of Power Corporation of Canada. He currently serves on the board of British American Tobacco and Hydro-Québec.
With this appointment, the size of Gildan’s Board will increase from 10 to 11 directors.
Retail
Citi Trends
Citi Trends Inc. announced that its board of directors appointed David Makuen as CEO, effective March 9.
Makuen will succeed Peter Sachse, who has served as interim CEO since Dec. 9, 2019. Makuen will assume the day-to-day leadership of the company and will also join Citi Trends’ board.
In addition, the board appointed Peter Sachse as executive chairman, also effective March 9. Sasche will work alongside Makuen as he transitions into his new role as CEO.
Citi Trends is a value-priced retailer of urban fashion apparel, accessories and home goods for the entire family. The company operates 571 stores in 33 states.
Sustainability
Fashion Positive
The Fashion Positive Advisory Council named Sasha Radovich as its new executive director.
Radovich will help Fashion Positive maximize its strategy to help support fashion brands and manufacturers in reaching their Sustainable Development Goals and Science Basted Targets. She brings 20 years’ experience with systems-change approaches from collaborative innovation to addressing impacts on people and communities, products, services and processes.
Fashion Positive, which began as an initiative of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, is a nonprofit that leads the vision, definition and use of safe and circular materials for the fashion industry.
Textiles
Lenzing
The supervisory board of Lenzing AG appointed two new members to the company’s management board.
Stephan Sielaff will serve as the new chief technology officer, effective March 1, succeeding Heiko Arnold, who left the Lenzing Group in November. At the same time, Lenzing’s highest management body led by chairman Stefan Doboczky will be expanded to include a newly created position for “Pulp and Wood Raw Materials” consisting of five members instead of four. Christian Skilich will assume the position of member of the management board for pulp and wood raw materials as of June 1.
Sielaff is a chemical engineer who gained experience in the chemical industry from 1993 to 2014, holding various management positions for Unilever and Symrise. Since 2014, he has worked for the Swiss specialty chemicals company Archroma, an important supplier of the textile and paper industry, as a member of the board of directors and chief operating officer (COO), responsible for forming the integrated operational structure and the strategic development of the company.
Skilich has worked for Mondi Group since 2004, most recently served as COO and on Mondi’s board of directors, overseeing projects in the U.S. and Europe.
Eastman
The board of directors of Eastman Chemical Company elected Edward L. Doheny II as a director. Doheny is president and CEO and a director of packaging solutions company Sealed Air Corporation.
Logistics
Hangar A
Digital air logistics provider Hangar A named Ron Richards as chief technology officer (CTO), managing the growing product management team and overseeing all product initiatives from design to execution.
Richards will report to CEO Kevin Kerns, and comes to Hangar A from AMI Entertainment, where he served as CTO for more than 14 years.
Based in Chicago, Hangar A provides shippers with an end-to-end software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for moving domestic air cargo throughout the U.S. The customizable Hangar A platform gives shippers the ability to book, trace and manage shipments, while taking advantage of tools like dynamic rate management, workflow automation and decision support.
Maersk
Patrick Jany will join A.P. Moller-Maersk as CFO and member of the executive board, effective May 1.
Jany comes from a successful career within finance and business process optimization as CFO and member of the executive committee of Clariant AG in Switzerland. He will assume responsibility as CFO of A.P. Moller – Maersk from May 1, 2020.
The executive board of A.P. Moller-Maersk will consist of CEO Søren Skou; Jany; Vincent Clerc, CEO of Ocean and Logistics; Morten Engelstoft, CEO of APM Terminals, and Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, CEO of Fleet & Strategic Brands.