Brands
Kontoor Brands
VF Corp. said Laurel Krueger was named vice president and general counsel of Kontoor Brands Inc., the independent, publicly traded company that will result from the announced separation of VF’s Jeanswear organization.
In this role, Krueger will oversee Kontoor Brands’ legal function, including compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance. She will serve on Kontoor Brands’ executive management team, reporting to CEO Scott Baxter.
Krueger joins Kontoor Brands from Signet Jewelers Ltd., where she served as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary
The separation of VF’s Jeanswear organization is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019, subject to final approval by the company’s board of directors, customary regulatory approvals and tax and legal considerations. The new company will comprise the Wrangler, Lee and Rock & Republic brands, and the VF Outlet business.
Retail
J.C. Penney Co. announced a series of leadership actions taking place over the next few months that will assemble a cross-functional executive team.
Beginning Jan. 21, Mike Robbins, executive vice president of private brands and supply chain, will become executive vice president, chief stores and supply chain officer. In his new customer-focused role, Robbins will be responsible for all stores, supply chain and sourcing operations. He will continue to oversee product design and development until a new chief merchant has been identified.
Truett Horne, currently an associate principal at McKinsey & Company, will join the company as chief transformation officer, reporting to J.C. Penney CEO Jill Soltau. Horne will have primary responsibility for the development and implementation of the company’s strategic and transformational initiatives.
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J.C. Penney also announced that it is seeking to fill key senior management positions and address current business needs as it undergoes a leadership transition. In addition to a search for chief merchant, a chief customer officer is being sought to drive aggressive customer-centric strategies to grow traffic, engagement and retention of its customer.
A search for a senior vice president of planning and allocation is also under way to lead the company`s process for setting and maintaining future performance goals for sales, inventory and merchandise replenishment, while anticipating sales trends and shopper demand for sought-after merchandise. A principal accounting officer will be hired to oversee the accounting functions, as well as serve as the lead controller. Andrew Drexler, senior vice president, chief accounting officer and controller, will leave the company, effective March 31.
A previously announced search for a chief financial officer is on track and has surfaced many compelling candidates, the retailer said.
Technology
Lectra is strengthening its executive committee to accelerate implementation of its Lectra 4.0 strategy, initiated in early 2017, with the objective of becoming a key player in the Industry 4.0 market.
Until now, Lectra’s executive committee was composed of Daniel Harari, Céline Choussy, Edouard Macquin, Jérôme Viala and Véronique Zoccoletto. In order to accelerate the execution of its strategy, the group has decided to review the organization of its subsidiaries, refocus efforts toward customer success and expand its executive committee, which remains under the chairmanship of Harari, chairman and CEO.
Jérôme Viala, executive vice president, is now vice chairman of the executive committee, with increased responsibilities on subsidiary operations, while maintaining his current duties. To be even closer to its customers’ needs and guarantee optimum use of its solutions, Lectra has created the position of chief customer success officer, headed by Laurence Jacquot, who joins the executive committee.
Maximilien Abadie, chief strategy officer, becomes a member of the executive committee, with the mission to support the implementation of the Lectra 4.0 strategy within the group’s teams and prepare the 2020-2022 strategic roadmap.
Olivier du Chesnay, chief financial officer, joins the executive committee with the objective to strengthen the fundamentals of Lectra’s economic model. Choussy, chief marketing and communications officer, will have as her main mission to ensure the launch and development of new offers. Zoccoletto, chief transformation officer, will focus on escalating Lectra’s ongoing digitalization and use of the four key technologies.
In addition, Lectra’s subsidiaries are newly organized into four main regions to better adapt the Lectra 4.0 strategy to Lectra’s different markets, accelerate business development and strengthen synergies within each geographical area. The new regions are Americas, led by Macquin; Asia-Pacific, led by Javier Garcia; Northern & Eastern Europe, Middle East, led by Holger Max-Lang, and Southern Europe & North Africa, led by Fabio Canali, who along with Garcia and Max-Lang join the executive committee.
Logistics
UPS
UPS announced that Philippe Gilbert joined the company as president of supply chain solutions. Gilbert will also join the UPS management committee, the company’s senior-most leadership group.
Gilbert will report to UPS chief operating officer Jim Barber and will be based at the company’s global headquarters in Atlanta. The position is a new one at UPS and has Gilbert responsible for global logistics and distribution, global freight forwarding and UPS Freight, as well as the technology-driven truckload freight brokerage business at Coyote.
Most recently, Gilbert served as regional CEO of the Americas for DB Schenker Logistics, based in Miami. He was previously regional CEO for West Europe from 2013 to 2015, based in Paris.