Lululemon Expands C-suite
Lululemon Athletica is adding to its senior leader team.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based athletic apparel and accessories maker has hired former Adidas executive André Maestrini to serve as executive vice president international, along with Abercrombie & Fitch alum Stacia Jones as vice president, global head of inclusion, diversity, equity and action, or IDEA. In addition, the retailer is elevating Celeste Burgoyne to be the first executive to serve at the president level in her role leading the Americas and global guest innovation teams.
“I am excited to announce these senior leadership appointments, which will enable us to continue to drive our business forward and further strengthen Lululemon’s leadership team,” Calvin McDonald, chief executive officer of Lululemon, said in a statement. “Celeste has been instrumental in Lululemon’s growth and from her first day with our company almost 15 years ago, she has made tangible contributions to our culture and our business that have helped us become the Lululemon we are today.”
Regarding the additions of Maestrini and Jones, McDonald said: “André is an experienced global leader with an established record of success who will enable us to build upon our momentum and drive our international expansion in key markets including China, as well as the broader [Asia-Pacific region] and [Europe, Middle East and Africa] regions. Stacia is a dynamic leader with demonstrated success helping retail organizations diversify and grow and she’ll enable us to deliver on our commitments related to inclusion, diversity and equity.”
Burgoyne, who started her career at Abercrombie & Fitch, joined Lululemon in 2006. She now oversees all guest-facing aspects of the North American business, including the brick-and-mortar and e-commerce channels. Burgoyne is also in charge of global guest innovation for the company. She reports to McDonald.
Maestrini spent the last 14 years at Adidas. His resume also includes stints at food companies such as Coca-Cola, Danone and Kraft Jacobs Suchard. In his new role, Maestrini will lead Lululemon’s international expansion. (In 2019, the retailer laid out plans to quadruple international revenues by 2023.) Maestrini begins in January and will report to McDonald.
Meanwhile, Jones will join Lululemon next month and work directly with the IDEA senior leadership team steering committee. She will report to Susan Gelinas, Lululemon’s senior vice president of people and culture. Jones spent the last 10 years at Abercrombie & Fitch.
Earlier this year Lululemon pledged to increase its global diversity and inclusion efforts. That meant filling the role of head of global diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as investing about $5 million a year in the IDEA team, establishing employee resource groups, offering anti-racism and anti-discrimination training for staff and increasing diverse representation among its workforce. Lululemon is also one of the founding sponsors of the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Black Journalism Fellowship.
“I believe every leader — and, in my case being a white, male leader — needs to be willing to learn and teach themselves about racism and biases that exist, in both society and within their own organization,” McDonald wrote on a LinkedIn blog post in August. “One of the top priorities for all leaders and organizations is systemic racism. The Black Lives Matter movement is igniting Lululemon and our collective, serving as a powerful catalyst to critically examine our culture and practices. We are confronting uncomfortable truths — Lululemon currently does not reflect the diversity of the global communities in which we operate and our practices and policies need to evolve to address inequities and discrimination across our communities. We have work to do to model our recently added value of inclusion.”
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