Lululemon's New Chief Brand Officer Starts Today, and the Four Seasons Is Footing the Bill for His Instincts

Ben Hallam officially joins Lululemon today as chief brand officer, the last major seat CEO Heidi O'Neill needed to fill in the leadership shuffle she kicked off within her first month on the job. Hallam spent his most recent stretch as senior vice president of marketing at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, which is a strange flex for an athletic-apparel brand until you remember Lululemon has spent a decade selling itself as a lifestyle, not a legging.

Hallam reports directly to O'Neill and takes over global brand marketing, creative, store experience, and community work, including sports marketing and partnerships. O'Neill called him a mix of "creative vision" and "commercial discipline," which is the kind of thing you say about someone you are hoping can do two jobs at once. Hallam, for his part, said he is excited to build on a brand with "a strong heritage of innovation," the standard-issue line every new hire says before finding out how many Slack channels they are now responsible for.

The hire closes out a leadership remodel that already added a chief strategy officer, a president, a chief product officer, and a chief operating officer this year. Lululemon still has openings for chief technology officer and chief communications officer, so the org chart is not done being rebuilt. Hallam's job, in short: make the brand feel as consistent in a Chicago flagship as it does on a billboard, at a moment when Lululemon badly needs its marketing to stop reading as an afterthought to its product.

Source: Business Wire

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →