Retail
Macy’s
Macy’s appointed Jennifer Johnson as ready-to-wear fashion director.
Johnson will be responsible for all areas of women’s apparel within the fashion office, which serves as a resource for the latest fashion trends and insights, and curates product from national and private brands. Johnson reports directly to Durand Guion, vice president of Macy’s fashion office.
Johnson has more than 20 years of fashion expertise in trend forecasting and marketing. A 14-year Macy’s veteran, Johnson joined the company in 2006 as a head fashion stylist and has held various marketing roles. She was most recently director of creative marketing integration and production, where she focused on bringing fashion campaigns to life through multimedia.
Macy’s fashion office team discovers and distills the latest trends in fashion, home and beauty. The fashion office works collaboratively across the organization to refresh and transform the Macy’s shopper’s wardrobe and home.
Brands
AGI Denim
AGI Denim, a Pakistani premium denim manufacturer, hired Carl Chiara as global creative director.
Prior to joining AGI Denim, he co-founded the Unionmade retail boutique chain. He has served as consultant to Gap Inc. and formerly worked as design and creative director at Levi Strauss & Co.
AGI Denim, formerly known as Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries, with its vertical integration and capacity of 40 million yards of fabric per year and 24 million garments per year.
Henry Wong is also taking over as vice president of product development and marketing.
Jaanu
Direct-to-consumer performance medical apparel company Jaanuu appointed Mike Klepfer as chief operating officer, leading operations, customer experience and planning for the brand.
Related Stories
Prior to joining Jaanuu, Klepfer held the same post at The Black Tux, where he was one of the first employees, helping the company raise $60 million in venture and private equity funding to become one of the top e-commerce operators in Los Angeles.
Jaanuu manufactures performance medical workwear, scrubs, lab coats, and accessories. Along with its fashion-forward styles, Jaanuu is also known for its proprietary fabrics ForminaFlex, PonteLux and JeoFlex that incorporate odor fighting, antimicrobial-finished fabric and premium stretch fabric blends manufactured to stay soft and wrinkle resistant in harsh hospital conditions.
Oxford
Oxford Industries Inc. announced the appointment of Milford W. McGuirt to the company’s board of directors.
McGuirt retired as managing partner of KPMG’s Atlanta office and Mid-South region. He held a number of leadership positions during his 33-year career at KPMG, including as national audit sector leader and national industry leader for the firm’s higher education practice.
Oxford Industries owns and markets the Tommy Bahama, Lilly Pulitzer and Southern Tide lifestyle brands. Oxford also produces certain licensed and private-label apparel products.
Technology
Elastic Path
Elastic Path, a headless commerce provider for digitally driven brands, appointed Jamus Driscoll as CEO.
With a proven track record of driving rapid growth and product innovation, Driscoll will lead Elastic Path into its next phase: widespread market adoption of its microservices-based headless commerce solutions. Elastic Path’s founder and former CEO, Harry Chemko, will assume the role of founder and chief strategy officer, reporting to Driscoll.
Prior to Elastic Path, Driscoll was CEO of Moltin, a commerce solution born natively as headless microservices, which was acquired by Elastic Path in January.
Elastic Path powers mission-critical digital commerce for brands such as Tesla, Intuit, Pella, Deckers Brands, T-Mobile, and over 250 other enterprises. Elastic Path is a global company with offices in Boston; Newcastle, England; Reading, Pa.; Toronto and Vancouver.
Simbe Robotics
Simbe Robotics Inc. announced that Tom Gehani, a retail and technology veteran with expertise in inventory management and business development, joined the company as vice president of customer success.
Gehani joins Simbe to lead partnership success and ensure its automated inventory solution, Tally, is fully leveraged in various retail environments. Previously, he served as a digital strategy expert at L2 and Gartner, He also spent time at retail technology startup Shopkick.
To date, Simbe has deployed Tally in more than a dozen of the world’s top retailers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The company raised $26 million in Series A funding last September, along with inventory financing to develop and deploy an additional 1,000 Tally robots over the next two years.
A privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in San Francisco, Simbe Robotics provides automation solutions that give retailers visibility and insight into the state of their store environments, while improving inventory and operational challenges.