Brands
VF Corp.
VF Corp. appointed Winnie Ma to the new position of president, Greater China.
Ma will report to Kevin Bailey, executive vice president and group president, APAC and emerging brands. In her role, Ma will be responsible for elevating VF’s business and brands in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. She will also focus on advancing VF’s stated strategy of growing its business in China.
Ma joins VF following a 10-year career at Unilever, North Asia, where she most recently led the Beauty & Personal Care category business. Prior to Unilever, Ma worked for The Coca-Cola Company for 12 years, holding several marketing positions.
She will be based in VF’s Shanghai office. VF has approximately 2,000 employees across Mainland China.
Soles4Souls
Fashion industry veteran Mike Shirey joined global nonprofit Soles4Souls’ as chief operating officer.
Prior to joining Soles4Souls, Shirey was executive vice president, sales and business development for Aerosoles and owner and president of C&O Trading.
Soles4Souls turns unwanted shoes and clothing into opportunity by keeping them from going to waste and putting them to good use, providing relief, creating jobs and empowering people to break the cycle of poverty. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., the organization repurposes product to supply its micro-enterprise, disaster relief and direct assistance programs. With locations and warehouses across three continents, Soles4Souls has been able to distribute more than 40 million pairs of shoes in 129 countries since 2006.
Richemont
Richemont announced the nomination of Wendy Luhabe for election to its board of directors.
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Luhabe will serve as a non-executive director and become a member of the board’s nominations committee. She has extensive experience in luxury goods and a long relationship with Richemont, chairing Vendôme South Africa, Richemont’s subsidiary in South Africa, from 2001 to 2011.
Luhabe is a social entrepreneur and economic activist with multiple honors for her pioneering contribution to the economic empowerment of women in South Africa. She is the founding chair of Women in Infrastructure Development and Energy, which focuses on the economic empowerment of women, and founded Bridging the Gap, an organization that equips black graduates with corporate skills, as well as the Women Private Equity Fund, South Africa’s first private venture capital fund for women.
Richemont owns a portfolio of leading international brands in the fashion, jewelry, watches and online distributors. Among them are Yoox, Net-a-Porter, Mr. Porter, The Outnet, Alaïa, Chloé, Dunhill, Montblanc and Peter Millar.
Textiles
Chargeurs PCC Fashion Technologies
Chargeurs PCC Fashion Technologies appointed Christy Raedeke as the company’s first chief marketing officer (CMO), effective Aug. 10.
Raedeke will lead all marketing efforts in support of Chargeurs’ global growth strategy, reporting directly to Angela Chan, global president of Chargeurs PCC Fashion Technologies.
She most recently served as CMO of Noble Biomaterials, where she reorganized the brand architecture and developed and launched the Ionic+ brand. Prior to that, she was executive vice president of global sales and marketing at Cocona Inc., where she developed and launched the 37.5 Technology brand.
Chargeurs PCC Fashion Technologies provides end-to-end solutions for the men’s wear and women’s wear brands by designing interlining, a technical fabric used to help garments retain their shape and structure. Its parent company, Chargeurs, is based in France and serves clients in more than 90 countries.
Retail
The RealReal
The RealReal, an online marketplace for authenticated, consigned luxury goods, announced that Caretha Coleman, principal of Coleman Consulting, and Carol Melton, CEO of Adeft Capital, joined its board of directors. These appointments make The RealReal’s board 50 percent female.
Coleman brings over 40 years of experience in the technology industry working with companies of all sizes in organizational strategy development and executive coaching and effectiveness. She sits on many boards supporting underserved populations, including The Leverage Network, which promotes the advancement of African Americans in leadership positions within the healthcare industry, and is chairman of Dignity Community Care, which is now part of the merged CommonSpirit Health, and board member of Virdris Learning.
Melton has extensive experience in global public policy, having held leadership roles at two international media and entertainment companies. Most recently, Melton served as executive vice president for global public policy at Time Warner. She serves on the board of JBG Smith, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., and Halcyon, and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Logistics
International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Muhammad Albakri, its regional vice president for Africa and the Middle East (AME), will be appointed senior vice president for customer, financial and digital services (CFDS), based in Geneva and effective March 1, 2021. At that time Aleks Popovich, who currently holds the position, will retire.
Albakri joined IATA in January 2017 after more than a decade in the leadership team of Saudi Arabian Airlines. At IATA, he helped transform the AME regional team to better serve member needs and pioneering the work of IATA’s Digital Transformation Advisory Council.