Brands
Kontoor Brands
Kontoor Brands Inc. appointed Tom Doerr as executive vice president (EVP), general counsel and corporate secretary, effective June 6. As a member of the company’s executive leadership team, he will report to Kontoor’s president, CEO and chair, Scott Baxter.
Doerr will be responsible for ensuring that the highest standards of integrity, ethics and behavior consistent with the organization’s values and mission continue to be upheld. In addition to overseeing fundamental legal and business functions such as compliance, legal strategy, issues identification, crisis management and global trademarks and intellectual property oversight, he also will serve as counsel to the board of directors.
Doerr joins Kontoor from The Manitowoc Company, where he served as EVP, general counsel and secretary since November 2020.
Kontoor Brands is a global lifestyle apparel company, with a portfolio led by the Wrangler and Lee brands.
Eddie Bauer
Outdoor brand Eddie Bauer appointed Christopher Bevans as its new creative director.
In his new role, Bevans will bring his experience in sportswear and textiles to influence the overall line of products that balance technical innovation and current trends. A member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, he has been recognized for his work with DYNE by earning the 2017 Woolmark Innovation Prize and being named a 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist. He also serves as senior creative lead at Shopify, where he works closely with emerging fashion industry entrepreneurs.
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Eddie Bauer’s performance outerwear, apparel, footwear, accessories and gear are available at eddiebauer.com and more than 200 stores in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Japan and other international markets.
Dickies
Dickies announced the appointment of Sarah Crockett as the company’s new global chief marketing officer.
Crockett will report to Dickies global brand president Denny Bruce and serve on the Dickies executive leadership team. She joins from Backcountry, where she served as chief marketing officer overseeing marketing efforts for the outdoor retail company’s North American portfolio of brands.
A brand of VF Corp., Dickies is available in over 100 countries.
PF Flyers
PF Flyers, the classic American sneaker brand, announced that Lisa Lewis joined the company as chief marketing officer (CMO).
Lewis will be responsible for relaunching the brand and establishing its position in the sneaker and lifestyle marketplace. Prior to her most recent role as the CMO at Piaggio Fast Forward, Lewis spent seven years at Sonos Inc., where she was eventually appointed as the global head of product collaborations.
Acquired by Kassia Davis in 2021, PF Flyers was previously owned and manufactured by New Balance.
Hanesbrands
Hanesbrands named Vanessa LeFebvre as president of global activewear.
In this role, LeFebvre will drive growth in the global Champion brand with a focus on innovation, key markets and new channels. She joins Hanesbrands from Adidas, where she was senior vice president, commercial, North America, with responsibility for e-commerce, retail stores and wholesale. Prior to joining Adidas in 2019, LeFebvre served as president of Lord & Taylor.
Carhartt
Workwear brand Carhartt promoted Katrina Agusti to chief information officer (CIO).
Agusti succeeded John Hill and reports to Linda Hubbard, Carhartt’s president and chief operating officer. As CIO, she will work collaboratively with Carhartt’s senior leadership team to provide guidance and strategic vision for information technology and digital efforts. She will identify technology solutions that meet the strategic needs of the organization and will create an environment where a digital mindset becomes an integral component of company culture.
Agusti joined Carhartt in 2003 and has held various position of increasing responsibility, most recently serving as vice president of solutions delivery.
Carhartt, headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., develops rugged products for workers on and off the job.
K Swiss
K-Swiss Global Brands promoted two team members.
Scott Boulton will be moving into the newly formed position of global vice president of trend and energy to support the K-Swiss and Palladium brands on an international scale. Since joining KSGB, he has had significant impact with high tier collaboration projects, while contributing to the main collection and range of product.
In addition, Allison Bennett, previously the sales director for K-Swiss and Palladium, will be taking over the leadership role for the brand as the new brand director palladium–The Americas.
Retail
Target
Target Corp. announced a number of updates to its leadership team.
Cara Sylvester was named executive vice president (EVP) and chief guest experience officer. In this new role for the company, Sylvester will lead the strategy to further differentiate Target’s guest experience, with a focus on increasing personalization and attracting even more shoppers to Target’s stores, website and app. She joined Target in 2007 and most recently served as the company’s executive vice president and chief marketing and digital officer. She will continue reporting to chairman and CEO Brian Cornell.
Brett Craig was promoted to EVP and chief information officer. He will report to Sylvester. Craig joined Target in 2008 and most recently was the company’s senior vice president of digital. He succeeds Mike McNamara, Target’s executive vice president and chief information officer since 2015, who intends to retire and will transition to a strategic advisory role with the company through the end of January.
Matt Zabel was promoted to EVP and general counsel. Zabel joined Target in 2010 and most recently served as senior vice president of risk and employee and labor relations for the company. In his new role, Zabel will continue reporting to Don Liu, Target’s EVP and chief legal and risk officer.
In addition, Christina Hennington, EVP and chief growth officer, will assume responsibility for Target in India, where her leadership will drive further connectivity between Target’s multidisciplinary team in India and the retailer’s growth strategies. Hennington will continue reporting to Cornell.
Minneapolis-based Target has nearly 2,000 stores and its Target.com e-commerce site.
Torrid
Torrid Holdings Inc., a direct-to-consumer apparel, intimates and accessories brand in North America for women sizes 10 to 30, announced changes to its senior leadership team and board of directors, including the appointment of Liz Muñoz to a new role as chief creative officer, Lisa Harper as Muñoz’s successor as CEO and Tanner MacDiarmid as interim chief financial officer (CFO).
In conjunction with these organizational changes, Torrid announced that Michael Shaffer, former CFO of PVH Corp., has joined the board as an independent member and chair of the Audit Committee.
In her new role, Muñoz will focus on product, design, product development, fabrics, sourcing, technical fit, creative marketing and merchandising, with the objective of applying her strategic approach to product to accelerate the company’s growth trajectory.
In addition to serving as CEO, Harper will remain a member of the Torrid board. She has previously served as CEO of Belk, Hot Topic and Gymboree.
George Wehlitz retired from his role as CFO at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022 and is now serving as an advisor. MacDiarmid will serve as interim CFO until the company names a replacement. His experience includes leadership roles as partner at MERU, senior vice president (SVP) at McKinsey & Company and senior director at Alvarez & Marsal.
Chinwe Abaelu, SVP and chief accounting officer, will serve as principal financial officer now until a new CFO joins Torrid.
Textiles
Spinnova
Spinnova appointed Allan Andersen as chief sales officer and a member of the management team.
This position is new at Spinnova and is an essential role supporting the company’s growth and scaling. Andersen reports to CEO Janne Poranen.
Prior to joining Spinnova, he worked for Under Armour from 2013 to 2022 in several positions, including director of sales, director of commercial optimization and go-to-market, chief of staff of global revenue and director of international business development.
Based in Finland, Spinnova has developed breakthrough technology for making textile fiber out of wood or waste, such as leather, textile or agricultural waste, without harmful chemicals. Spinnova materials are quickly biodegradable and circular.
Chilewich
Textile products firm Chilewich appointed John McPhee to succeed Joe Sultan as CEO.
In addition to assuming day-to-day leadership of the company, McPhee has joined the Chilewich board of directors. McPhee joins Chilewich from contemporary footwear company Sam Edelman, where he served as president from February 2020. He previously spent a decade as president of Design Within Reach, a modernist furniture retailer.
Founded in 2000 by Sandy Chilewich, the design-led company produces durable, distinctive and easy-to-clean indoor-outdoor textiles for residential, commercial and transportation applications. Chilewich’s woven coverings for tabletops, floors and walls are made in the United States, and the company has its own factory in Chatsworth, Ga.
Trade
AAFA
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) announced that Corinne Suder will lead its events and programming department as vice president, effective June 13.
Suder, who had been senior director at AAFA, will preside over a portfolio of several dozen annual events and webinars. Each of AAFA’s programs are built to align with its strategic plan across the priorities of brand protection; supply chain and sourcing, and trade, logistics and manufacturing.
AAFA also said that Susan Lapetina will depart the organization after 23 years. Her last day as senior vice president with the association will be June 10.
Technology
Modifi
Global fintech Modifi announced that Matthias Hendrichs joined its executive team as chief commercial officer.
Hendrichs joined Modifi from Apple, where he served as head of Asia Pacific for Apple’s multibillion-dollar App Store & iTunes Retail Payments and Commerce business across 20 markets in Asia Pacific, based out of Hong Kong.
He will lead the market side of the business consisting of the global sales and marketing teams spanning China, Hong Kong, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the UAE, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the U.S.
Modifi enables global commerce through a platform for business payments and trade management software. The company is backed by Maersk, GFC, Picus Capital, Intesa San Paolo and Heliad, serving over 1,200 exporters and importers across more than 40 countries.
Tulip
Tulip appointed Roberto Grandillo to the role of executive vice president (EVP) of product management. As EVP, Grandillo will be providing leadership to the product management team, shaping the product vision and strategy for all Tulip products.
He was most recently vice president of product development and head of retail at Lightspeed Commerce, where he led the development of the retail product portfolio.
Tulip provides a suite of cloud-based solutions. Partnered with Apple and Salesforce, Tulip equips retailers to build connections with customers, fulfill orders, checkout purchases and optimize operations in order to create the end-to-end experience customers expect.