Retail
Target
Target Corporation announced a number of changes across its executive leadership team.
Christina Hennington was named executive vice president and chief growth officer. Hennington joined Target in 2003 and was instrumental in the retailer’s efforts to modernize its merchandising organization by blending its physical and digital buying functions. Additionally, she played a critical role in establishing Target as a reliable and trusted destination for essential needs during the pandemic.
In her newly created role, Hennington will have oversight of merchandising, including Target’s product design and global sourcing organizations, as well as enterprise strategy, insights and innovation. As chief growth officer, she will work across Target’s organization to identify and pursue revenue-generating strategies that deepen the company’s relevancy with current and prospective customers.
With Hennington stepping into this new role, Jill Sando will now lead buying for all of Target’s hardlines and softlines product categories as the company’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer. Sando, who joined Target in 1997, will report to Hennington and remain a member of Target’s executive leadership team.
Rick Gomez was named executive vice president and chief food and beverage officer. Gomez, who has been with Target since 2013, most recently served as the company’s chief marketing, digital and strategy officer.
After 15 years with the company, Stephanie Lundquist, Target’s former president of food and beverage, announced her plans to depart the organization earlier this year. She will remain in an advisory role through Spring 2021.
Cara Sylvester was promoted to executive vice president and chief marketing and digital officer. Sylvester joined Target in 2007 and has served in a variety of leadership roles across strategy and merchandising, most recently as senior vice president of home, during which she increased the product category’s digital penetration and consistently drove strong sales and market share gains. In her new position, Sylvester will be responsible for deepening the consumer affinity for the Target brand across all platforms, furthering the company’s loyalty program and in-house media company, and fueling continued digital growth.
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Katie Boylan was promoted to executive vice president and chief communications officer. Boylan, who joined Target in 2011, has been leading the company’s communications function since 2017. Her expanded responsibilities will now include Target’s social responsibility and sustainability initiatives, as well as its philanthropic efforts, including the Target Foundation.
Walmart
Walmart promoted Denise Incandela to oversee its apparel brands, with the title of executive vice president, apparel and private brands.
Incandela, an apparel industry veteran who rose through leadership roles at Saks Fifth Avenue and Ralph Lauren Corp. and became the chief executive officer of footwear brand Aerosoles, most recently held the role of senior vice president of Walmart’s women’s group, elevated and online brands. In that role, she oversaw the significant expansion of Walmart’s fashion apparel offerings, including the retailer’s link-ups with entertainment personalities including Sofia Vergara, as well as original lines such as the Free Assembly line that launched in September.
“Since joining the company, I’ve been focused on establishing Walmart as a destination for fashion — a place where customers can discover quality, on-trend fashion no matter their style or budget,” Incandela said in a statement Friday. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done to expand our fashion assortment and bring new and existing customers hundreds more national brands and exclusive, elevated brands at an incredible value.”
Macy’s
Macy’s Inc. announced that Xingchu Liu joined the company as senior vice president, enterprise data & analytics.
In this role, Liu is responsible for building and leading the company’s enterprise data and analytics team, which will focus on analytics governance, data management and activation. He will report to Matt Baer, chief digital officer of Macy’s Inc.
Prior to joining Macy’s, Liu was the president of Black Locus, an innovative subsidiary within The Home Depot, where he led corporate-level strategies for data, analytics and artificial intelligence. Prior to that, Xingchu was responsible for data-driven planning, development and strategies at TrueCar Inc. and Zilliant Inc.
Kohl’s Corp.
Kohl’s Corp. announced that Robbin Mitchell has joined its board of directors as an independent director.
A member of the fashion & luxury leadership team at the Boston Consulting Group, Mitchell brings extensive retail industry operating experience and expertise in areas important to Kohl’s growth strategy, including women’s apparel, active and beauty.
Mitchell’s appointment is part of the continuous board refreshment process at Kohl’s, which brings directors appointed in the past five years to half of the board, and continues to enhance its diversity. Mitchell was appointed to a term expiring at Kohl’s 2021 annual shareholders meeting and will stand for election by Kohl’s shareholders at that time. She will initially serve on the board’s governance and nominating committee. With Mitchell’s appointment, the board has now been expanded to consist of 12 directors, 11 of whom are independent.
Mitchell has been a partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group since June 2016. From 2011 to 2015, she served as chief operating officer of Club Monaco, a subsidiary of Ralph Lauren Corporation.
C&A
C&A Europe appointed Jean Sebastien Guy as chief people and culture officer and Betty Kieß as head of corporate communications Europe, effective March 1 and April 12, respectively.
Guy joins C&A from Ikea, where he most recently led people, culture and leadership development of the company’s digital transformation and was a member of its management board. Sebastien will report to CEO Giny Boer and be part of the European management team.
Kieß joins C&A from international energy supplier E.ON, where she has been working for almost 13 years. In her last role as senior vice president for strategic communications/media and employee relations, she was accountable for E.O’s group-wide communications strategy, internal and external campaigns, and executive communications. She also will report to Boer and advise the European management team as a standing guest.
C&A is a fashion retailer present in 21 countries. In Europe, C&A has 1,400 stores.
Trade
WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) members made history when the General Council agreed by consensus to select Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria as the organization’s seventh director-general.
When she takes office on March 1, Okonjo-Iweala will become the first woman and the first African to be chosen as director-general. Her term, renewable, will expire on Aug. 31 2025.
The General Council decision follows months of uncertainty that arose when the United States initially refused to join the consensus around Okonjo-Iweala and threw its support behind South Korea Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee. But following Yoo’s decision on Feb. 5 to withdraw her candidacy, the Biden administration dropped the U.S. objection and announced instead that Washington extends its “strong support” to the candidacy of Okonjo-Iweala.
The process for selecting a new director-general was triggered on May 14 when former Roberto Azevêdo informed WTO members he would be stepping down from his post one year before the expiry of his mandate. He subsequently left office on Aug. 31.
Brands
VF Corp.
VF Corp. appointed Jan Van Mossevelde to the position of global brand president for Icebreaker.
Van Mossevelde will be based in the brand’s home market of Auckland, New Zealand. He will report to Martino Scabbia Guerrini, president of VF’s EMEA region.
Since 2019, Van Mossevelde has served as vice president (VP) and general manager for Icebreaker EMEA. He joined VF in 2015 as general manager of global brand management and demand creation, within the company’s corporate strategy organization. Previously, he served as VP of strategy for VF’s EMEA region.
Van Mossevelde succeeds Greg Smith, who recently announced his decision to leave the brand to pursue new opportunities.
Technology
Lectra
French fashion production and software maker Lectra appointed Jacqueline Liger as vice president of marketing for Southern Europe and North Africa.
Liger will lead all marketing activities in those regions, contributing to Lectra’s positioning and prospecting there. With more than 15 years of professional experience in the United States, Liger brings to Lectra her marketing expertise in complex B2B environments.
She was previously in charge of marketing for the American and Canadian subsidiaries of a major Italian industrial solutions and equipment supplier, located in North Carolina.
Zenreach
Zenreach, a specialist in “Walk-Through” marketing technology, named Nitin Duggal as chief product officer.
Prior to joining Zenreach, Duggal served as the chief product officer for Affinity, where he led product, design, business and marketing functions for the software as a service company.
Duggal has devoted his career to improving the technology for which direct-to-consumer marketers rely to deliver breakthrough customer experiences and is poised to address the challenges that currently exist in the location-based marketing and attribution space. He has several patents to his name in data science and Internet technologies.
Zenreach created Walk-Through Marketing to help businesses with physical locations dramatically improve customer acquisition and lifetime value by connecting digital marketing with in-store results. Zenreach Engage automatically tracks customer visits, builds rich customer profiles and keeps them up to date.
Logistics
Saloodo
Dr. Antje Huber took over the position of CEO at the digital freight platform Saloodo. She succeeds Thomas Grunau, who has successfully managed the company in this capacity since 2018.
In his primary role as senior vice president (SVP) of global business strategy and digitalization and member of the divisional board, Grunau is responsible for driving the business strategy at DHL Global Forwarding. While in the future he has to dedicate his focus more on these strategic tasks, including measures to drive digitalization within DHL Global Forwarding’s air and ocean freight business, he handed over his additional responsibility as CEO for Saloodo to Huber.
Huber has been a member of the Saloodo management board since the beginning of 2019 and has played a key role not only in the successful establishment of the platform in Europe but also its global rollout at the end of 2020. She began her career at DHL Group in 2003 and has since held several positions in corporate development, DHL Parcel and innovation and operations post and pParcel Germany. In 2017, she joined DHL Freight as SVP for strategy, marketing and chief of staff and will continue in this role in addition to her responsibilities as Saloodo CEO.
Additional reporting by Sindhu Sundar.