Under Armour Inc. announced two new additions to the company’s senior management team with the appointments of Alessandro de Pestel as chief marketing officer and Ann Funai as senior vice president, engineering.
These hires will strengthen Under Armour’s ability to drive growth through the implementation of strategic marketing activities and digital touchpoints to build brand equity and increase global market share.
“We’re excited to welcome Alessandro and Ann to the Under Armour team, two talented senior executives who will help us connect even more deeply with our consumers through powerful engagements and premium experiences,” said Kevin Plank, Under Armour’s chairman and CEO. “The diversity of their global experience and insights will enrich and advance our marketing and digital capabilities to deliver an even more seamless experience to our consumers–whenever and wherever they engage the Under Armour brand.”
Alessandro de Pestel, Chief Marketing Officer
As a member of the company’s executive team and a direct report to President and Chief Operating Officer Patrik Frisk, De Pestel will lead all aspects of the company’s global brand marketing strategy. He will be based at the company’s global headquarters in Baltimore.
De Pestel has successfully developed brand equity and pioneered digital marketing across different cultures, nations and businesses. He has more than 20 years of high-level global experience in communications and global marketing. He most recently served as executive vice president of marketing, communications and consumer insights for Tommy Hilfilger Global/PVH Europe where he executed global alignment, planning and strategies to support the company’s product directives and initiatives.
Prior to that, de Pestel served as international communications director for Christian Dior Parfums in France and as vice president of global marketing for Omega Watches in Switzerland.
Ann Funai, Senior Vice President, Engineering
As a senior leader, Funai will be responsible for the engineering function across Under Armour’s digital ecosystem, including its fitness applications and global e-commerce business. She will lead the engineering strategy that supports the roadmap, platform and product feature set development. Based in Austin, TX, she will report directly to Chief Digital Officer Paul Fipps.
Funai joins Under Armour following her role as chief technology officer at PeopleAdmin, a SaaS company focused on talent management for the education industry. In that role she led the architecture, development, quality assurance, development operations, security, IT and design teams. She was also the technical leader for the acquisition and integration of multiple companies including PeopleAdmin’s merger with PowerSchool.
Prior to that, Funai was with IBM, where she worked across many different business units and technical disciplines including the development of hardware simulation, firmware, systems management and OpenStack software for its cognitive systems.
