Retail
Designer Brands
Designer Brands Inc. named Doug Howe as president of DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse and executive vice president of Designer Brands.
As president of DSW, Howe will be responsible for day-to-day leadership of the company and bringing DSW’s differentiated customer experience and desired brands to life across direct-to-consumer channels. He will report directly to Designer Brands CEO Roger Rawlins.
Howe most recently served as chief merchandising officer at Kohl’s, and held prior leadership positions across merchandising, design, product development and planning at Qurate Retail Group, Old Navy, Walmart and May Department Stores.
Designer Brands operates a portfolio of retail concepts in nearly 700 locations under the DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, The Shoe Company and Shoe Warehouse banners. Designer Brands designs and produces footwear and accessories through Camuto Group, a manufacturer selling in more than 5,400 stores worldwide.
Bed Bath & Beyond
John Barresi, chief accounting officer for Bed Bath & Beyond, resigned from his position effective June 10, roughly a year after joining the home goods retailer from Tiffany & Co., where he was vice president of global transformation.
Intermix
Beginning June 7, Karen Katz, Intermix board member, will become interim CEO.
Katz is the former president and CEO of the Neiman Marcus Group, where she led the company through its digital transformation. After eight years as CEO and 33 years with the company in a variety of positions, she retired in 2018.
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Intermix is an omnichannel women’s fashion business comprised of 30 boutiques with hyper-localized assortments and a rapidly growing e-commerce channel.
Burlington Stores
Burlington Stores Inc. appointed Kristin Wolfe as chief financial officer, effective on or about Aug. 1.
As previously announced, the employment of John Crimmins, the company’s current CFO, will end on Aug. 31. The month overlap will allow for both executives to transition and Crimmins will provide consulting services to the company through the end of February 2023.
Wolfe joins Burlington from Ross Stores Inc., where she most recently served as group senior vice president of corporate finance from 2021 through her resignation in May.
Burlington Stores, headquartered in New Jersey, is a nationally recognized off-price retailer with fiscal 2021 net sales of $9.3 billion. The company operated 866 stores as of the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022, in 46 states and Puerto Rico.
Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix Inc. announced that Debbie Rose Woloshin joined the company as chief marketing officer (CMO).
Woloshin will report to Stitch Fix CEO Elizabeth Spaulding and lead the company’s marketing teams across the U.S. and the U,K. Shewas previously the CMO at Marc Jacobs.
Stitch Fix is an online personal shopping and styling service that delivers one-to-one personalization to its clients through the combination of data science and human judgment.
JD Sports
JD Sports Fashion, a retailer of sports, fashion and outdoor brands separated the roles of chair and CEO.
As a result, Peter Cowgill, currently executive chairman, will step down from his role. Helen Ashton, currently non-executive director (NED) and chair of the Audit & Risk Committee, will become interim non-executive chair. Ashton joined the board in November 2021.
Kath Smith, currently NED and senior independent director, will become interim CEO. Smith will work closely with the senior leadership team to continue to deliver on the company’s proven and successful strategy.
The process to recruit a CEO remains ongoing and a process will now commence to recruit a new non-executive chair, the company said.
Marks & Spencer
Marks & Spencer said Steve Rowe will step down from his role of CEO but remain employed until July 5.
Under the terms of his service agreement, he will receive salary and benefits by way of phased monthly payments for up to 12 months, subject to mitigation. During this time, he will remain as an adviser to the new leadership team.
Brands
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein appointed Jonathan Bottomley as global chief marketing officer (CMO), effective June 6.
In this role, Bottomley will report to Trish Donnelly, CEO of PVH Americas & Calvin Klein Global, and will oversee all aspects of the consumer marketing organization.
Bottomley joins Calvin Klein from Boll & Branch, where he served as CMO. Previously, he served as global CMO for Ralph Lauren.
Cotopaxi
Outdoor gear brand and certified B Corporation Cotopaxi appointed its first president, Damien Huang, reporting to and working alongside CEO and founder Davis Smith.
Huang joins Cotopaxi from his most recent role as CEO of Eddie Bauer. At Cotopaxi, Huang’s new position at the eight-year-old brand will help drive strategy, operations and execution across the C-suite and organization. The position is focused on brand development, impact giving through strategic brand focuses, and elevating consciously designed and manufactured products as part of Cotopaxi’s global impact mission.
Huang will be based in Seattle, making frequent trips to Salt Lake City where Cotopaxi is based, but is part of the new remote-first structure that the company implemented during 2020.
On
Swiss performance sports brand On announced the election of Dennis Durkin as additional independent member of its board of directors.
Durkin has served as a board observer since September 2021. Prior to that, he had served as chief financial officer of Activision Blizzard Inc. before retiring from the company in May 2021.
Textiles
Apparel Impact Institute
The Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) promoted Kurt Kipka to chief impact officer and Ryan Gaines to chief financial officer (CFO).
Aii is in growth mode as it scales its work in the supply chain to meet the apparel and footwear industry’s 2030 Science Based Targets of reducing total CO2 emissions by half. The only way to meet this ambitious goal is by addressing Scope 3 emissions, so Aii is expanding its core operations to reach even more regions and support the addition of new programs that adequately address carbon emissions across the supply chain.
Kipka joined Aii in 2018 from NRDC, where he led the Clean by Design program. In his new role, he will drive innovations, partnerships and programs for rapid, quantified and scaleable environmental improvements.
Gaines joined the Aii team in 2019 as director of finance and has led all aspects of the organization’s financial management and reporting. In his new role as CFO, he will lead efforts to further develop Aii’s financial and impact reporting capabilities, data and IT systems, and the infrastructure to manage the organization’s growing portfolio of grant activities.
Aii identifies, funds, scales and measures proven quality solutions to accelerate positive impact in the fashion industry. Aii is calling for a $250 million Fashion Climate Fund to unlock a $2 billion blended capital investment towards the science based targets commitments by 2030.
Ocean State Innovations
Textile provider Ocean State Innovations (OSI) appointed Peter Raneri as global sales manager.
Raneri most recently held the position of vice president of sales and business development at HLC Industries. In his new role for OSI, Raneri will handle domestic and global business opportunities in tactical, industrial and specialty market segments.
Founded in 1913 as Brand and Oppenheimer Company in 2014 Brand & Oppenheimer acquired Performance Textiles, a U.S. textiles supplier. In 2019, Brand and Oppenheimer became Ocean State Innovations.