Foot Locker, Inc. made some additional news Wednesday on its conference call with analysts, announcing a flurry of new hires and appointments to solidify the management teams that will focus efforts on the customer experience.
“We brought on a number of talented individuals in critical positions, including a chief technology officer and chief customer officer in March,” shared company President and CEO Mary Dillon at the beginning of her prepared comments. “And just this quarter, we welcomed Kristin Bauer, who was most recently at TCGPlayer.com and has also spent time at TJ Maxx, Ulta Beauty and Target, as our new chief supply chain officer.”
Dillon also noted that the company had hired a new EVP and General Counsel, Jennifer Kraft, who was most recently at Starbucks.
Mike Baughn, who has over 15 years of retail finance experience, most recently serving as EVP of finance and treasurer at Kohl’s, was hired as Foot Locker’s new EVP and chief financial officer.
“Mike’s been an excellent addition to the team and will be a great partner in helping us achieve our Lace Up plan ambitions,” expressed Dillon. “With our senior leadership team in place, we’ve also recently made important structural changes to our merchandising, marketing and finance teams designed to enhance our ability to execute and immediately improve our forecast and skills and inventory management capabilities. Frank and Mike will share more on these changes in a few moments.
Franklin Bracken, Foot Locker’s EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, also made several announcements.
“To accelerate our digital e-commerce and loyalty strategies, we just announced several key hires on our new chief customer officer, Kim Waldmann,” he shared. “Andrew Rahosh joined us as vice president of global e-commerce, where he will lead our digital merchandising strategies and operations across all banners and regions.”
Bracken said Rahosh joined Foot Locker from PVH and Urban Outfitters, where he held similar roles.
Avery Worthing-Jones also joined Foot Locker as VP of digital product management, overseeing the retailer’s digital customer experience across mobile, app, loyalty, and other key technology investment areas like merchandising systems.
“Slavko John Sacova started as our new Vice President of Marketing for Europe,” Bracken shared. “Slack’s experience at Nike and Adidas will be invaluable in building strong brand partnerships and consumer connections.”
Bracken said that Matthew Wright was hired as the new VP and global creative director to help elevate Foot Locker’s brand storytelling and content across all channels. He said Wright would leverage his deep experience with brands, including Nike, Levi’s and Urban Outfitters, to ensure the Foot Locker brands maintain high consumer engagement and relevance in sneaker culture.
Foot Locker has also hired a new VP of loyalty and CRM to drive a holistic agenda, including the FLX rewards program’s re-launch and personalization roadmap.
“These changes under Kim give us the leadership front line to modernize our demand creation capabilities and to position our brands to connect with consumers in a truly meaningful way,” Bracken said.
Foot Locker has also made several changes in its merchandising organization to streamline decision-making and align accountabilities more directly within their banners.
“First, we realigned the buying teams within our banner GM structure, enabling a higher degree of coordination and accountability across the merchandising function,” Bracken said. As we have created very clear lanes of differentiation between the banners, now is the right time for this change. Additionally, this puts our buying function closer to the consumer and our marketing teams so that we can partner with vendors in a more integrated manner, leading with consumer insights and developing holistic omnichannel experiences.”
Foot Locker appointed Brian Milburn to a newly defined role as SVP and chief merchandising officer.
“Brian brings over 30 years of industry experience as a merchant and general manager,” said Bracken. “And in his new capacity, he will build a merchandising center of excellence to elevate our visual merchandising and in-store experience, modernize our merchandising planning, analytics and data sharing and finally, collaborate closely with Kim’s customer marketing organization to elevate our brand partnerships.”
Bracken said Milburn will oversee Foot Locker’s global footwear strategy team and its vertical brand development function.
“Brian will be announcing some key new hires in the coming weeks to our global merchandising organization,” Bracken said.
“In summary, these changes to our organization will enable us to modernize our capabilities in support of Lace Up, while bringing a more integrated and consumer-led offense to our vendor partnerships,” he concluded. “The new leadership talent that we have added as well as the marketing and merchandising capabilities we are building gives our team confidence that we are laying the foundation for long-term growth.”
Photo courtesy Foot Locker
