Under Armour, Inc. announced that David Baxter succeeded Stephanie Pugliese as president of the Americas. Pugliese is stepping down from the position and leaving the company.
Mehri Shadman was hired as chief legal officer and corporate secretary, replacing John Stanton, UA’s current chief legal officer, who will retire at the end of 2022 after 16 years of working for the company.
Both Baxter and Shadman begin their positions effective October 24.
Pugliese will remain until early 2023 to support Baxter’s transition.
“We’re very excited to recognize the talent David and Mehri bring to our business,” said Colin Browne, UA’s interim president and CEO. “With deep market knowledge and outstanding expertise, we look forward to their proven leadership qualities helping to architect our next growth chapter.”
Browne continued, “As one of our longest-serving executives, we want to congratulate John on his retirement and thank him for his many contributions to UA, including building our legal function from a small team following our initial public offering to a world-class global function. We also thank Stephanie for her contributions to Under Armour over the last three years, particularly her leadership of our largest region during a highly uncertain retail environment.”
Before joining Under Armour in 2020 as senior vice president of Americas Wholesale, Baxter was the president and CEO of Lids Sports Group from 2016 to 2019. Before that, he was vice president of Adidas’s America’s Sport Performance division from 2010 to 2014, where he directed its North American product and marketing strategies. Before that position, Baxter oversaw Adidas and Reebok’s sports-licensed businesses with the major U.S. professional sports leagues. And for nine years before that, Baxter held various leadership roles at Reebok, including working on-field and in its sports-licensed divisions.
Shadman brings over 15 years of experience providing legal counsel in-house and in private practice. Currently the deputy general counsel, Corporate and Risk and assistant corporate secretary, she has spent nine years at Under Armour providing corporate counsel to its board of directors and executives. She oversees corporate, global ethics and compliance, data privacy, and enterprise risk management functions.
Shadman will manage UA’s global legal operation and serve as corporate secretary in her new role. Shadman began her career as an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in its capital markets practice.
Photo courtesy UA
