Dive Brief:
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On the back of some October exec appointments, Lululemon on Friday named company veteran Meghan Frank as its new chief financial officer, effective Monday. She will be the first woman to hold that title at the athletics retailer, according to a release.
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Frank replaces Patrick (PJ) Guido, who left in May. Frank served as interim co-CFO alongside Vice President and Controller Alex Grieve since Guido's departure, and joined the company as senior vice president of financial planning and analysis in 2016.
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As CFO, Frank will be responsible for finance, tax, treasury, investor relations, asset protection, facilities, operations excellence and strategy. She has over 20 years of experience, including through senior roles at Ross and J. Crew.
Dive Insight:
It's been a busy fall for Lululemon's executive ranks. The athletics retailer in late October promoted its first executive to the president level: Celeste Burgoyne, who leads the Americas and Global Guest Innovation at Lululemon.
At the same time, the retailer named Stacia Jones its vice president and global head of IDEA, its inclusion, diversity, equity and action effort, and hired longtime Adidas exec André Maestrini as executive vice president of International to lead the retailer's planned international expansion. Those hirings and promotions were said to promote the company's Power of Three growth strategy, which includes doubling men's and digital revenues, and quadrupling international revenues.
With the appointment of Frank on a permanent basis, CEO Calvin McDonald said the retailer benefits not only from her finance and merchandise planning experience, but also the fact that she had already led the company through much of the pandemic, which began to impact U.S. retailers in earnest around mid-March.
"Earlier this year, when we started to navigate the COVID-19 environment, Meghan confidently took on more responsibility within the company and demonstrated agility, business acumen, and natural leadership skills," McDonald said in a statement.
During a pandemic that has mostly roiled the industry, Lululemon has emerged as a rare winner, in part thanks to its positioning as an athleisure brand when customers are increasingly seeking comfort. While most retailers were simply trying to recover from the financial devastation of the pandemic, Lululemon spent $500 million to acquire home fitness platform Mirror in June.
As the global health crisis has dragged on, the retailer continues to take advantage of the home workout trend, announcing in November it would sell Mirror devices in stores, and plans for more community features to add to the tech.