Lululemon's New CEO's First Move: Rip Up the Org Chart

Lululemon CEO Heidi O'Neill, about a month into the role, announced a round of senior leadership changes this week, including new chief operating officer and chief product officer positions. Athleta CEO Maggie Gauger is moving over to become Lululemon's chief product officer, overseeing design, merchandising, and product innovation; she and O'Neill overlapped for years at Nike earlier in their careers. Lululemon is still hiring a chief brand officer, a communications chief, a technology chief, and a chief strategy officer.

The shake-up comes as Lululemon tries to climb out of a real slump: Americas revenue fell 8% last quarter, with comparable sales there down 12%, and CFO Meghan Frank has already called customer response to new product "inconsistent." Analysts are polite but unconvinced so far. GlobalData's Neil Saunders said there's "a great deal to prove," and William Blair pointed out that Gauger had "little tangible success" during her stretch at Athleta, even as Jefferies allowed that the restructuring "goes after the right problem."

O'Neill frames it as putting "product, design, and innovation at the center of how we operate," which is corporate shorthand for admitting the last few years of product misses need a fix, fast. Notably absent from the announcement: any replacement for global creative director Jonathan Cheung, who's held the role since 2024, meaning the brand's biggest creative seat still sits empty while everything around it gets rebuilt.

Source: Retail Dive

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