Caleres announced the election of Wenda Harris Millard and Brenda Freeman to its board of directors.
Millard is vice chairman of MediaLink, a strategic advisory firm counseling Fortune 100 clients around the convergence of media, marketing, advertising, entertainment and technology. Before joining MediaLink, Millard served as co-CEO and president of Martha Stewart Living OmniMedia, where her responsibilities included oversight of the media business including publishing, internet and broadcasting. She was the driving force behind creating cross-platform programs in TV, digital, magazines and radio. Before MSLO, she was chief sales officer at Yahoo, where she built what was consistently credited as the top sales organization in the media industry. She served on the founding executive team of DoubleClick, and was also SVP and publisher of Family Circle and EVP-group publisher for Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek magazines.
Millard is past chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, former president of the Advertising Club of New York and has served on the boards of the Advertising Council and American Advertising Federation. She has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College and a master’s degree in business from Harvard University.
Freeman is currently the chief marketing officer for MagicLeap, a technology company that is developing a Mixed Reality computing platform. She is responsible for all aspects of brand and product marketing, including the customer journey experience – CRM, social, digital, publicity, experiential and influencer marketing. Prior to her current role, Freeman was CMO for the National Geographic Channels where she oversaw brand development, multi-platform creative architecture and consumer communication. She was also global head of television marketing for Dreamworks, CMO of Cartoon Network at Turner Broadcasting and SVP for Nickelodeon integrated marketing and partnerships at Viacom. Early in her career, she held consumer marketing and product development positions for Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola, both divisions of PepsiCo.
Freeman currently serves on the board of Herman Miller, the furniture design company. She previously sat on the board of Under Armour. Freeman has both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maryland.
“How we best serve our customers has undergone a sea change over the last five years and it continues to rapidly evolve every day,” said Diane Sullivan, CEO, president and chairman of Caleres. “Brenda and Wenda’s expertise around emerging consumer technology and trends will greatly benefit us as we continuously look to newer, faster and more creative ways to reach the customer with the shoes and brands they want– when, where and how they want them.”
The Women’s Forum of New York has recognized Caleres for the percentage of women on its board. With the addition of Freeman and Millard, the Caleres board now has more than 50 percent of its board seats held by women.
Caleres owns Famous Footwear and Famous.com as well as a number of wholesale footwear brands. Its Contemporary Fashion brands include Sam Edelman, Allen Edmonds, Franco Sarto, Vince, Via Spiga, George Brown Bilt, Diane von Furstenberg, Fergie Footwear and Carlos Santana. Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl’s Shoes, LifeStride, Bzees and Rykä represent its Healthy Living brands.
