Brands
Prada
The Prada Group appointed Malika Savell as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for Prada North America.
In her role, Savell will be responsible for developing policies, strategies and programs to help ensure diverse representation of cultures and perspectives at all levels of the company. She will be in charge of working with the company’s global leadership to strengthen the inclusive culture and advancement for the company’s talents.
Savell reports to Prada USA CEO Marcelo Noschese and will work closely with Prada’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, chaired by artist and activist Theaster Gates and writer, director and producer Ava DuVernay to continue providing opportunities for students of color and investing in scholarship, internship and apprenticeship programs. Savell will also collaborate with the council and the company’s creative and design teams to keep the company abreast of global social awareness around race, culture and politics.
Previously, she was director of Cultural Diversity-Partnerships & Engagement at Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH).
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren Corporation appointed Valerie Jarrett, senior distinguished fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, to the company’s board of directors. With the appointment of Jarrett, the Ralph Lauren board is now comprised of 13 directors.
Jarrett is also a senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and media company ATTN. She was the longest-serving senior advisor to the Obama administration, where she oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. She also served as co-chair of the Obama-Biden presidential transition team and as senior advisor to Obama’s presidential campaign.
Previously, Jarrett was president and CEO of The Habitat Company and, prior to that, she served for eight years in Chicago government as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development, Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley and Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development.
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Jarrett’s appointment follows the recent addition of Darren Walker, president and CEO of the Ford Foundation, to the board this year.
Adidas
Amanda Rajkumar was appointed to the Adidas executive board. Beginning in 2021, Rajkumar will join the six-member board of the sporting goods company as executive board member responsible for global human resources.
She joins adidas from BNP Paribas, where over 11 years she held a number of executive HR leadership positions for different business divisions based out of the U.K. and the U.S. Most recently she was head of human resources for the Americas region, including responsibility.
Oros Apparel
Michael Markesbery, CEO of outerwear firm Oros, announced that Grace Jehan joined the company as vice president of brand marketing.
She is a seasoned leader and brand storyteller with more than 20 years of experience across brands such as Athleta, The North Face and Apple. She will lead the development and execution of the Oros brand vision across all channels.
Ben
Ben, an entertainment AI company that places brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content, announced a new executive hire.
Ben has seen exponential growth in 2020, and has continued to expand its team, AI tools, and client roster. In Q3, BEN signed more than 42 new clients, including Clarins, Kitsch, Forever 21, and Schutz, and executed more than 3,000 placements across influencer marketing.
Bem welcomed Lindsay Cohen as executive vice president of strategy, client services and marketing. Cohen is a former Ben client and brings a wealth of client-side experience to her new role, as she has overseen influencer, social media, and brand marketing for companies including Twitch, Ubisoft, Dolby, and HBO.
Retail
HBC
Ian Putnam was appointed president and CEO of HBC Properties and Investments (HBCPI), a new unit of HBC dedicated to real estate and investments to manage, maximize and enhance the company’s portfolio of assets. HBC owns or controls, either entirely or with joint venture partners, 40 million square feet of gross leasable area across North America.
HBCPI also features Streetworks Development, a large-scale property development division that creates transformative multi-use environments.
Putnam previously served as president of real estate and chief corporate development officer of HBC. Under his leadership, HBCPI manages and enhances HBC’s robust real estate portfolio and investments, including Streetworks Development, which is focused on creating transformative mixed-use developments.
Under the direction of real estate veteran Kenneth Narva, chairman and chief development officer, the Streetworks Development team will lead the planning and execution of projects that modernize properties to unlock value-enhancing opportunities across the company’s real estate assets. This new division focuses on creating multi-use spaces that feature a variety of services and experiences across the workplace, retail, residential and entertainment categories.
HBC is a holding company of portfolio businesses that operate at the intersection of retail and real estate. Among its portfolio companies are Saks Fifth Avenue, Hudson’s Bay and Saks Off 5th.
David’s Bridal
Maggie Lord, founder of online wedding resource Rustic Wedding Chic, will join the team at David’s Bridal and lead strategic partnerships after its acquisition by David’s Bridal.
Lord will report to chief marketing and IT officer Kelly Cook.
Lord has spent the past decade creating, inspiring, and sharing her wedding knowledge. She has published thousands of stories to the Rustic Wedding Chic blog, established relationships with over 5,000 curated vendors, authored six books, and amassed millions of monthly impressions across Rustic Wedding Chic’s social media channels.
David’s Bridal has more than 300 stores located across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and franchise locations in Mexico.
Wish
Mobile shopping firm Wish appointed Stephanie Tilenius and Julie M.B. Bradley to its board of directors.
Tilenius is CEO of Vida Health Inc., a mobile continuous virtual care platform for preventing, managing and overcoming chronic and mental health conditions. Bradley served as chief financial officer of TripAdvisor Inc. from October 2011 to November 2015. She also serves on the board of Wayfair Inc.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wish is a fast-growing global e-commerce platform, connecting more than 100 million monthly active users in over 100 countries to over 500,000 merchants around the world.
Stitch Fix
Online personal styling service Stitch Fix Inc. announced that Neal Mohan joined its board of directors. Mohan is the ninth member of Stitch Fix’s board, which is a majority female.
Mohan is chief product officer at YouTube, responsible for YouTube products, user experience, and trust and safety on all platforms and devices globally. Previously, he was senior vice president of display and video ads at Google.
Sustainability
Sustainable Apparel Coalition
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), an association representing the apparel, footwear and textile industry in sustainability, appointed ex-Nike executive Jeremy Lardeau as its new vice president of the Higg Index, a suite of tools that were developed by the organization to standardize tracking and measuring social and environmental sustainability.
Lardeau joins the SAC executive team and will lead the 10-year-old organization in its integration and continued evolution of the Higg Index tools and act as the key liaison point with Higg Co, the technology company that spun out of the SAC in 2019 to accelerate tool digitalization and develop new products and services to scale up industry adoption.
With 17 years of corporate sustainability experience at companies like PwC and Nike, Lardeau brings a breadth and depth of subject matter expertise to the SAC. In his most recent role as senior director of sustainability analytics at Nike, he invested considerable time in SAC and Higg as a champion for the Higg Index
SAC is an industrywide group of more than 250 apparel, footwear and textile brands, retailers, suppliers, service providers, trade associations, nonprofits, NGOs and academic institutions working to promote social justice throughout the global value chain and reduce the environmental impacts of products.
Trade
Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg
International trade, customs and export law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg (ST&R) announced that Mika McLafferty will be joining the firm as a member in the firm’s New York office.
McLafferty has more than a decade of experience in import and export law and regulation, including issues such as classification, valuation, Section 301 and other tariffs, marking/origin, antidumping scope inquiries, labeling and other government agency requirements. She also helps clients with developing and implementing internal compliance and duty savings programs, filing protests seeking duty refunds, filing prior disclosures where errors have been made, requesting binding rulings, and seeking tariff exclusions. Her assistance has led to millions of dollars in duty refunds for importers of various product categories.
ST&R is the largest dedicated international trade, customs, and export law firm in the world. Its clients worldwide include governments, manufacturers, importers, exporters, customs brokers, freight forwarders, and sureties.