Lululemon retailer register London, March 2, 2026.
Peter Dazeley | Getty Photos
Lululemon on Wednesday named Heidi O’Neill because the athleisure firm’s new CEO, efficient Sept. 8.
The information comes after the corporate has seen greater than a yr of disappointing efficiency and is embroiled in a dramatic proxy battle, with founder Chip Wilson criticizing the enterprise.
Shares of the corporate sank greater than 5% in prolonged buying and selling.
O’Neill has held a number of roles at Nike, contributing to the sportswear behemoth’s development. She additionally held positions at Levi Strauss, Hyatt Inns and Spotify.
“Heidi is an inspiring chief and confirmed, consumer-driven model strategist, with a uncommon capability to each think about a brand new future for a model and to create the construction and processes to ship on that imaginative and prescient,” stated Marti Morfitt, Lululemon’s government chair of the board of administrators, in a press release. “We chosen Heidi due to the breadth of her expertise, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough concepts and initiatives at scale, and her capability to be a educated change and development agent.”
O’Neill stated in a press release that she plans to give attention to constructing off of the corporate’s core basis and unlock development in world markets. O’Neill will begin with a base wage of $1.4 million, based on an 8-Ok submitting.
“I’m humbled by the chance and energized by what the staff is already constructing,” she stated in her assertion. “I sit up for becoming a member of the corporate and serving to to outline and ship the group’s subsequent chapter of success.”
Lululemon has been fighting weak gross sales and elevated competitors, in addition to mounting prices from tariffs. In its final earnings report, the retailer stated it expects tariffs to price the corporate $380 million this yr.
Wilson, Lululemon’s largest shareholder, has additionally been putting elevated public stress on the corporate to make modifications to its board of administrators. He didn’t instantly reply to a request to touch upon the appointment.
In a press release, GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders stated O’Neill has “a really robust pedigree within the activewear and sporting house” and “has an intimate information of how the trade works.”
“There will probably be some, principally activist traders, who see O’Neill as one thing of a secure and conventional selection,” Saunders stated. “This argument is partly legitimate as a variety of cultural change is required at Lululemon as a way to enhance efficiency. Nevertheless, in our view, O’Neill is her personal one who will include an agenda of change.”
Whereas at Nike, O’Neill performed a key function within the firm’s doomed direct-to-consumer gross sales technique, the place the model pivoted away from wholesale companions in favor of its personal web site and shops below former CEO John Donahoe. When present CEO Elliott Hill took over as Nike’s subsequent chief government, he made it a precedence to stroll again the direct-selling plan.
Previous to leaving Nike, O’Neill additionally oversaw product and innovation at a time when the model confronted criticism for falling behind on new merchandise and focusing too closely on the identical legacy life-style franchises, Dunks, Air Power Ones and Air Jordans. Whereas the franchises briefly led to a surge in gross sales, fueling Nike’s development to a $50 billion-plus model, they finally turned ubiquitous available in the market and considered as uncool by some customers.
Now, Hill remains to be engaged on unwinding that technique and clearing stock from these franchises from {the marketplace}, which has hit Nike’s margins and led to a decline in gross sales on-line.
