Allbirds, Inc. promoted Kate Ridley from chief brand officer to chief brand and product officer, and Benny Joseph, currently chief technology officer, to chief technology and culture officer.
Allbirds hired Ridley in January 2022 from Adidas, where she left as senior vice president of Brand, North America. She brings nearly 25 years of footwear experience to Allbirds, having started her career as a category manager at Adidas from 2000 to 2012 and, from 2014 to 2022, held positions of increasing responsibility for Adidas, working across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America regions.
With Ridley’s promotion, Co-CEO Tim Brown expands his role to include leadership of Allbirds’ Innovation Futures team, including innovation and sustainability.
Joey Zwillinger, Allbirds’s co-CEO said, “One-year post-IPO, we have so much to be proud of as an organization. These changes at the executive leadership team level, coupled with other efforts the team is hard at work implementing to streamline processes and improve our supply chain, will best position Allbirds for its next phase of profitable growth. We have long envisioned uniting brand and product under one leader, and we are thrilled to have found that leader in Kate Ridley.
“As a purpose-native company, our mission and culture have always been key to Allbirds’s success. The creation of a new chief culture officer role symbolizes how important the flock is to the future of this company and our focus on maintaining our culture of success. As the longest-serving member of our executive leadership team, Benny has a deep understanding of, and love for, our mission and culture and a proven track record of being able to foster strong company culture in a remote-first environment, having successfully led a primarily remote team for the last several years. We look forward to elevating this role as we transition to a hybrid work environment,” Zwillinger concluded.
