Textiles
Milliken & Co.
Milliken & Co.’s board of directors appointed Halsey M. Cook Jr. as president and CEO, effective Sept. 1. Cook succeeds J. Harold Chandler, who will return to his role as chair of the board of directors.
Milliken said Cook’s 30-year career leading a wide range of large, diversified global businesses with significant manufacturing and distribution networks has prepared him to lead the family-owned company. His executive positions in sales, marketing and product development have included international and U.S.-based assignments for companies such as United Technologies and Legrand North America.
Most recently, Cook was president and CEO for Sonepar USA, a family-owned global distributor of electrical products and related solutions. These experiences provided opportunities for Cook to drive growth through organic innovation programs and strategic acquisitions. Milliken’s products expertise includes specialty chemicals, floor covering and performance and protective textiles.
Technology
Impactiva
Impactiva, a provider of solutions, teams and processes to the footwear and apparel industries, announced Bill Blay as vice president of production for supply chain process optimization. Blay will be responsible for leading the process optimization team to improve factory performance through lean manufacturing methodologies to improve cost, quality and production time for clients.
Blay began his career in the manufacturing industry as an industrial engineer in 1980. A significant role in his career prior to Impactiva was senior vice president of Caleres Technical Assurance and Quality Management. At Caleres China, Blay managed the optimization of the entire commercialization process, improving quality and improving on-time.
Pitney Bowes
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Pitney Bowes, a global technology company that provides commerce solutions in the areas of shipping, mailing, data and ecommerce, announced that Mary J. Steele Guilfoile and Robert M. Dutkowsky were elected to its board of directors.
The election of Guilfoile and Dutkowsky brings the total number of directors to 13. Guilfoile will serve on the Finance and Audit Committees and Dutkowsky will serve on the Governance and Compensation Committees.
Guilfoile is chairman of MG Advisors Inc., a privately owned financial services merger and acquisition advisory and consulting services firm. She currently serves on the boards of The Interpublic Group of Companies, C.H. Robinson Worldwide and Hudson Ltd.
Dutkowsky was appointed executive chairman of Tech Data’s board of directors in June. In this role, he serves as a strategic advisor to Tech Data’s CEO, providing support in vendor, customer and community engagement, as well as special projects. Dutkowsky joined Tech Data Corp. in 2006 as CEO and a member of the company’s board of directors. In June 2017, he was elected chairman.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce, an e-commerce platform for brands, said Lisa Pearson joined the company as chief marketing officer. With more than 20 years of leadership experience—over a decade of which has been spent scaling SaaS companies—Pearson will lead BigCommerce’s global marketing organization, overseeing all aspects of brand and communications, product marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition and partner marketing.
Pearson joins BigCommerce from data management platform Umbel, where she served as CEO. Prior to Umbel, Pearson was the CMO for Bazaarvoice, and was a key member of the team that took the company public in 2012.
Pearson’s appointment comes following a series of company milestones. Most recently, BigCommerce announced the opening of its first European office in London, following a $64 million round of growth funding led by Goldman Sachs. Last month, the company announced BigCommerce for WordPress, which pairs the content-rich capabilities of the world’s most used CMS with robust ecommerce functionality powered by BigCommerce.
Retail
Christopher & Banks
Andrea Kellick will join Christopher & Banks on Monday as senior vice president and chief merchandising officer.
As chief merchant, Kellick will be responsible for merchandising, product development and sourcing. Tricia Perket, senior vice president of merchandising, is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
Kellick brings more than 30 years of retail merchandising experience to the company, including 16 years at Target Corp. In her most recent role, she was vice president of women’s apparel at Target. Previously, Kellick served in a variety of merchandising and planning roles, including jewelry, accessories, domestics and apparel. Prior to Target, she held various merchandising and sourcing roles for Old Navy, Express and Spiegel.
Off-price fashion retailer Century 21 Stores named Michael Kustermann as chief marketing officer. In this role, Kustermann will have responsibility for Century 21 Stores’ omnichannel market presence and strategy, leading all marketing, creative and digital efforts, including e-commerce. He will report to Century 21 Stores co-CEO Raymond Gindi and join the company’s executive committee.
Kustermann comes to Century 21 with a long career leading marketing and digital functions, most recently at Bose Corp. as global chief digital experience officer. Prior to Bose, he served as the director of global innovation at Starbucks Corp., where he led the efforts to identify, create and bring new products, services and partnerships to international markets.
Brands
Nike Inc.
Nike Inc. announced that Cathleen Benko was appointed to the company’s board of directors. Benko is vice chairman and managing principal of Deloitte LLP.
A former leader in Deloitte’s “Digital Giants” practice, Benko has guided several global businesses in driving transformational efforts critical to creating shareholder value, Nike noted. As Deloitte Consulting’s first global e-business leader and subsequently serving as its technology sector leader, Benko was instrumental in positioning the firm’s services and capability development for the post-internet marketplace.
She went on to serve as Deloitte’s first chief talent officer, where she devised a more agile and inclusive career development model. Benko currently serves as a member of Catalyst’s board of advisors and chairs the HBS advisory council.
Footwear
OrthoLite
Ortholite, a provider of comfort and performance insoles, hired Olivia Billingsley as sales manager for premium. With nearly two decades of experience in footwear sales, design and development, Billingsley’s expertise is expected to enhance its collaborative efforts with brand partners such as Clarks, Kenneth Cole, Keds, Rockport and Michael Kors.
Billingsley started her career at ES Originals as a designer on Rampage Footwear and later moved over to Candies Footwear, then Kenneth Cole as a product development manager, Pediped Footwear as design director, licensing at Levi Strauss, and most recently regional sales manager for Plae footwear.
OrthoLite is a vertically integrated insole manufacture, as well as a chemical systems-house producing proprietary open cell polyurethane formulations. OrthoLite has sales offices across the U.S. Europe and Asia, as well as manufacturing facilities in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.