Retail
Forever 21
Forever 21 announced Winnie Park as its CEO.
Park joins Forever 21 from Paper Source, where she served as CEO for the past six years. She will report to SPARC CEO Marc Miller.
SPARC, which offers operational and strategic expertise, including retail and e-commerce management, sourcing, design and technology for global brands including Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers, Nautica, Lucky Brand and Aéropostale.
Prior to Paper Source, Park held executive roles across e-commerce, global marketing and fashion erchandising, including a nine-year tenure at the Hong Kong-based international luxury retail leader, DFS, a division of LVMH.
Now a part of Authentic Brands Group, Brookfield Property Group and Simon Property Group, Forever 21 has a renewed focus on improving the customer experience while expanding access and convenience for customers, with over 540 locations around the world.
Nordstrom
Rickie De Sole joined Nordstrom as women’s designer fashion and editorial director.
In this newly created role, De Sole will work cross-functionally across different facets of the women’s designer division, bringing a heightened point of view to the merchandising offering to deliver against business goals and growth plans. De Sole will also develop the women’s designer editorial plan, create engaging designer content, act as a spokesperson, build a heightened customer community and drive results.
De Sole joins Nordstrom from Vogue.com, where she was the executive fashion director, supporting business initiatives and content across digital, print and social platforms, as well as editorial collaborations and e-commerce. Prior to Vogue, De Sole was fashion director at W Magazine, accessories director at Vogue Magazine and worked in-house at Prada.
Neiman Marcus Group
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Neiman Marcus Group (NMG) appointed two senior leaders to elevated positions to support the organization’s growth roadmap, Revolutionizing Luxury Experiences.
To support this growth, NMG is continuing to make long-term investments in the business including $90 million in supply chain to enhance the company’s systems and distribution facilities, and $200 million in technology for priorities including the retailer’s Connect platform, the acquisition of Stylyze and new digital labs.
Amanda Martin was named senior vice president and chief supply chain officer. In this new role, Martin will take over responsibility for all supply chain operations, including NMG’s multi-year supply chain transformation. In addition to this responsibility, Martin will oversee the retailer’s photo studio and customer care divisions.
Vijay Karthik was promoted to senior vice president and chief technology officer. Karthik reports to Bob Kupbens, chief product and technology officer, and is tasked with driving end-to-end customer facing IT development and architecture.
Karthik will lead a number of functions, including omnichannel engineering, cloud platforms, operations and reliability, and architecture for the luxury retailer.
NMG’s brands include Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus Last Call and Horchow.
Nation Retail Federation
The National Retail Federation (NRF) announced that Walmart U.S. president and CEO John Furner was elected chairman of the NRF board of directors.
Furner replaces former Qurate Retail Inc. president and CEO Mike George, who has served in the role since 2020. In addition, Bloomingdale’s chairman and CEO Tony Spring will join the NRF board for a two-year term.
Also, the NRF Foundation board of directors named a new chair and added two directors. Macy’s Inc. chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette concluded his term as chair of the NRF Foundation Board and Bloomingdale’s Sping will begin his three-year term as board chair.
In addition, Macy’s Inc. senior vice president of corporate communications, Malek Robert Amirshahi, and Keith Lipert, president of the Keith Lipert Gallery, were named to three-year terms on the board.
TheDrop
TheDrop.com, a global marketplace serving the youth lifestyle market, announced that Scott Keating joined the company’s management team as chief merchandising officer.
In this newly created role, Keating will lead TheDrop’s global merchandising strategy and manage relationships with the 300-plus brands and retail shops that sell products through TheDrop’s platform.
Keating was formerly at Nike, where he spent 14 years in a range of leadership roles, most recently as global sales and brand director for Nike SB. In this role, he was responsible for driving global growth from the U.S. to Europe, China and Japan. Prior to that, Keating led the Nike Snowboarding group, where he developed the top snowboarding boot in the market before Nike closed the division.
The Bay
The Bay appointed Alexander Meyer as chief customer officer.
Meyer will be responsible for the ongoing transformation of The Bay’s integrated marketing, media and customer success strategies, with a focus on high growth, brand and personalization. Reporting directly to Iain Nairn, president and CEO, he will oversee the brand strategy and customer insights, marketing and creative, loyalty and communications functions for The Bay and Hudson’s Bay businesses.
Meyer most recently served as chief marketing officer for Australia and New Zealand online fashion and sports site The Iconic. Prior to that, he served in senior and C-suite roles at organizations including Adidas International, Vans and Quiksilver Inc.
The Bay operates thebay.com, a life and style digital platform in Canada featuring Marketplace, with a seamless connection to a network of 85 Hudson’s Bay stores.
Revolve
Revolve Group Inc. appointed Oana Ruxandra to its board of directors, as well as its audit and compensation committees.
Ruxandra is chief digital officer and executive vice president of business development at Warner Music Group, where she oversees global digital partnerships and negotiations with a focus on exploring new forms of commercial innovation and creating new digital revenue opportunities.
Ruxandra is replacing Hadley Mullin on the board. Mullin, a senior managing director at TSG Consumer and a Revolve director since 2012, submitted her resignation from the board on Jan. 13, effective upon Ruxandra’s appointment to the board.
Revolve sells merchandise through two complementary segments, Revolve and FWRD, that leverage one platform. Revolve offers an assortment of premium apparel and footwear, accessories and beauty products from emerging, established and owned brands, while FWRD sells a curated assortment of luxury brands.
Brands
Parachute
Parachute appointed retail industry veteran Meredith Lamont as the company’s first chief merchandising officer.
Lamont will be responsible for driving growth strategies, as well as leading Parachute’s product development and category expansion. Lamont has held senior-level positions with established home and apparel retailers such as Pottery Barn, Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co.
Parachute is a multicategory home company that offers products designed in Los Angeles and responsibly manufactured around the globe. Parachute operates 13 stores in the U.S. and recently launched in Canada.
RYU Apparel
RYU Apparel Inc., a maker of urban athletic apparel and accessories, hired Zachary Beers as marketing director, effective Feb. 1.
In his new role, Beers will be responsible for leading RYU’s omnichannel marketing efforts to attract and retain RYU consumers in support of the company’s growth strategy. In addition to developing RYU’s consumer-centric marketing strategy around its “Movement Matters” brand mantra, he will oversee all supporting online and offline efforts across the RYU e-commerce website, social media, paid media, email, printed catalogs, retail stores and other channels.
Textiles
Lenzing
Lenzing announced that Krishna Manda, co-lead and senior manager of sustainability integration, was appointed as vice president of corporate sustainability, succeeding Peter Bartsch.
Located in Lenzing, Austria, Manda has been with the Lenzing Group for the past 10 years in various capacities and has played an instrumental role in setting up the sustainability function. In his new role, he will be responsible for the corporate sustainability function for the Lenzing Group and integrating sustainability in the core business. He will have strong collaboration with the business units, functions, sites and external stakeholders to ensure Lenzing’s sustainability leadership in the industry.
Manda reports to CEO Cord Prinzhorn and is a member of the extended management committee (EMC). Bartsch will take on a new role as senior advisor for sustainability, reporting to Manda.
Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute welcomed Dr. Anna Lennquist, senior toxicologist at The International Chemical Secretariat (ChemSec), and Dr. Nikola Juhasz, global technical director for sustainability at Sun Chemical, who have been appointed to the Institute’s Standards Steering Committee by the board of directors.
The committee is composed of technical and subject matter experts from a variety of stakeholder groups. The new appointments deepen the expertise of the committee across all categories of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Standard, bringing on board additional material health expertise.
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute verifies products and materials that are safe, circular and responsibly made by assessing sustainability performance across material health, product circularity, clean air and climate protection, water and soil stewardship, and social fairness.
Technology
Lectra
Lectra has expanded its executive committee to achieve its new ambitions.
Lectra’s executive committee now has 16 members, consisting of chairman and CEO Daniel Harari; Jérôme Viala, executive vice president and vice-chairman; Maximilien Abadie, chief strategy officer; Fabio Canali, president of Southern Europe & North Africa; Thierry Caye, chief technology officer; Olivier du Chesnay, chief financial officer (CFO); Céline Choussy, chief product officer; Javier Garcia, president of Asia-Pacific; Karen Gibbs, deputy CFO; Laurence Jacquot, chief customer success officer; Eric Lespinasse, chief industrial officer; Leonard Marano, president of the Americas; Holger Max-Lang, president for Northern & Eastern Europe and Middle East; Maria Modrono, chief marketing and communications officer; Rani Rao, chief people officer, and Edward Wang, senior vice president, Asia-Pacific.
The main objectives of the Executive Committee in 2022 are to complete the integration of the Gerber Technology and Lectra teams, integrate the technologies of the different companies acquired and develop synergies between the company’s various entities.
Lectra crafts the premium technologies that facilitate the digital transformation for companies in the fashion, car interiors and furniture industries.
Logistics
IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) appointed Frederic Leger as its senior vice president for commercial products and services.
Leger served in the role on an interim basis since July, when IATA’s commercial products and services division was created as part of an internal restructuring. He reports to Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.
Leger holds the concurrent position of president of IATA’s cargo network services in the U.S. He joined IATA in 2005 as head of e-invoicing services.
Nuvocargo
Nuvocargo, a digital platform for U.S.-Mexico trade, announced that Lauren Burdick joined the company as head of people.
In this new role at Nuvocargo, Burdick will leverage her experience leading operational teams and projects in the U.S. and in Mexico to manage the company’s employee experience and ensure that it is closely aligned with its vision, mission and values. She will define and execute the strategy behind Nuvocargo’s employee value proposition and compensation philosophy and ensure process excellence in talent acquisition, people operations, and learning and development.
Burdick joins Nuvocargo from the $8.7 billion LatAm startup Kavak, where she led the Central Mexico region as general manager and later the company’s Latin America customer service teams. Prior to that, Burdick was with Uber, where she helped scale the Uber Mexico customer service team to 500 and also served as chief of staff and head of corporate strategy for Uber Eats LatAm.
Nuvocargo recently raised $20.5 million, led by Tiger Global Management, at a $180 million valuation. This additional funding brings Nuvocargo’s total raised to date to $37.8 million since its launch in late 2019. Nuvocargo will use the funds to continue accelerating growth, expanding its product solutions in the industry, and strengthening its existing carrier and shipper network on both sides of the border. It is also developing new revenue streams, starting with add-on financial products for shippers and carriers, targeting the $125 billion market for supply chain finance between the U.S. and Mexico.
Port of Long Beach
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the appointment of Sandy Witz as director of human resources services to lead the division that oversees the port’s human capital strategies. The Port of Long Beach has about 550 employees.
Witz, the former port assistant director of human resources, had been serving in a consulting role as acting HR director. She was selected for the permanent position following a competitive search after the previous HR director, Stacey Lewis, announced her retirement.
Prior to coming to the port, Witz worked for City of Anaheim human resources for more than 20 years serving in various leadership positions. She is the current president for the Southern California Public Management Association-Human Resources.
Trade
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg (ST&R) announced the addition of Andrew Margolis, a veteran Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) official, who will increase the firm’s capacity to help clients address today’s global logistics challenges.
Margolis comes to ST&R after a 32-year career with the FMC, where he earned extensive experience in ocean transportation regulation in matters related to ocean freight forwarders, steamship lines, ports, terminals and import/export companies. His expertise includes dispute resolution and adjudication of complaints under the Shipping Act pertaining to ocean freight overcharges and unfair practices.
ST&R is an international trade, customs, export and trade policy law firm with over 60 professionals, nine offices and 14 additional locations. The firm’s practice focuses on cross-border movement of goods, including minimizing risks, reducing and eliminating liabilities, decreasing cycle time, and anticipating and addressing problems in corporations, government agencies and courts of law.