Apr. 23, 2026 "Former Nike executive to take over as Lululemon's new CEO": Today I found this article by Tara Deschamps on CBC:
Lululemon Athletica Inc. is putting its trust in a former Nike executive after facing months of backlash about the company’s management and performance.
The Vancouver-based athleisure retailer announced Wednesday that Heidi O’Neill will become its next chief executive officer on Sept. 8, when she will also join its board.
The company said she was chosen for the role because of her experience,
"success delivering breakthrough ideas
and initiatives at scale,
and her ability to be
a knowledgeable change
and growth agent."
“Heidi is an inspiring leader
and proven, consumer-driven brand strategist,
with a rare ability to both imagine a new future for a brand
and to create the structure
and processes
to deliver on that vision,”
Lululemon executive board chair Marti Morfitt said in a statement.
Her appointment comes amid a turbulent chapter for Lululemon, the yoga pants juggernaut that's been inundated with competition from trendy upstarts and massive brands like the one O'Neill used to run.
Shareholders, including Lululemon's estranged founder Chip Wilson, started pressing last year for the company to appoint new board members that would better
address rivals,
its sagging share price
and a product mix some felt was getting stale.
Wilson, who has not worked for Lululemon for years but still holds some of its stock, wanted
former On Holding AG co-CEO Marc Maurer,
former ESPN chief marketing officer Laura Gentile
and ex-Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg
named as board members.
His spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about O'Neill's appointment Wednesday.
Their calls for action came after Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald announced in December that he would step down.
When he left in January, chief financial officer Meghan Frank and chief operating officer André Maestrini became interim co-CEOs as the search for McDonald's successor continued.
They will continue to share the top job until O’Neill starts, when they will return to their other executive roles, Lululemon said Wednesday.
The company credited O'Neill with helping to grow
Nike from a $9-billion business
into a $45-billion athletic brand
during her 25 years at the firm.
It said she's also spent time in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss & Co.
and on the boards of
Spotify Technology
and Hyatt Hotels.
O’Neill said in a statement that she sees Lululemon as
"an iconic brand with something rare:
genuine guest love,
a product ethos rooted in innovation,
and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential.
"My job will be to build on that foundation
— to accelerate product breakthroughs,
deepen the brand’s cultural relevance,
and unlock growth in markets around the world,"
she said.
Safe choice, analyst says
O’Neill was not on the list of executives Wilson was prodding Lululemon to hire.
The company has so far not heeded his advice, instead appointing former Levi Strauss & Co. president and CEO Chip Bergh to the board.
It also alleged Wilson has prevented the company from interviewing his suggested board members by demanding the company sign an agreement before it proceeds.
It has not outlined what terms it alleges Wilson is requesting.
Neil Saunders, managing director of consulting and analytics firm GlobalData, said he suspects some will see O’Neill
"as something of a safe and traditional choice,"
given that "a lot of cultural change is needed at Lululemon
in order to improve performance."
He, however, thinks she is an "obvious choice" because of her
experience in activewear
and on the boards of companies entrenched in customer service.
"Despite its lack of growth in North America over recent years, Lululemon is not a terrible business:
share losses have been modest,
and it is still generating growth,"
Saunders said in a note to investors.
"The challenge will be to inject more energy
and restore Lululemon as one of the leaders in terms of product innovation.
This can be accomplished under O’Neill."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/lululemon-new-ceo-heidi-o-neill-9.7174049
Apr. 23, 2026 "Lululemon sinks after new CEO hire from Nike fails to impress investors": Today I found this article on BNN Bloomberg:
Lululemon Athletica shares shares tumbled about 12 per cent in early trading on Thursday, as the struggling athletic apparel maker’s decision to tap a CEO from turnaround-embattled Nike failed to reassure investors.
The appointment of Heidi O’Neill, who most recently was the president of consumer, product, and brand at Nike, ends a months-long search marked by pressure from an activist investor and Lululemon’s founder Chip Wilson.
Parallels with Nike
“We do not expect the market to receive this appointment positively given O’Neill’s longstanding tenure at Nike,
which overlaps with the brand developing many challenges that parallel the ones LULU is currently facing,”
BTIG analyst Janine Stichter said.
O’Neill, who left Nike last year after more than 25 years amid a management reshuffle,
will join in September and will be tasked with
stalling Lululemon’s market share losses
and refreshing its image.
Nike’s stock hit a more than decade-low earlier this month after CEO Elliott Hill
warned of a sharp sales drop and continued weakness in China,
frustrating analysts and investors keen on a revival in the storied sportswear giant’s fortunes.
Lululemon has also dealt with product recalls for some of its pricey leggings in the recent past
and has tried to balance inventory levels as it deals with
intensifying competition from upstart brands such as Alo Yoga and Vuori in the U.S.
Chip Wilson, who owns about 4.3 per cent of the company, continues to believe that a board overhaul should have come before the CEO’s election, a source familiar with the founder’s thinking told Reuters.
Wilson has been waging a proxy fight to install his three director-candidates and had said earlier this year that any CEO candidate picked by the current board would have his support.
Elliott did not respond to Reuters request for comment.
Not the right fit?
Meanwhile, analysts at Needham and Evercore ISI attributed the stock decline to the appointment of O’Neill instead of Elliott Investment Management‘s choice of veteran retail executive Jane Nielsen.
Nielsen was the finance chief at Ralph Lauren for eight years until 2024
and for five years at Tabby handbag-parent Coach
when the brands were undergoing a turnaround to move into a higher-margin business model.
“At this juncture, Lululemon needs a turnaround CEO
and not a growth CEO,”
said BNP Paribas analyst Gaston Dimant in a note, adding that Nielsen would have been the right pick to guide the yogawear maker through a change.
Elliott, which has a roughly US$1 billion stake in Lululemon, has been pushing for Nielsen’s appointment, compounding scrutiny from its founder Wilson.
Both Elliott and Wilson did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on O’Neill’s appointment.
Lululemon’s shares have tumbled 38 per cent in the last 12 months, trimming its market value to $18.8 billion.
They were trading at $144.01 in morning trading on Thursday.
With O’Neill not taking charge until September, analysts caution that Lululemon’s stock would get little respite this year.
“O’Neill may bring much-needed product experience to drive a brand reset.
But for now, the core issues remain:
an ongoing proxy fight that adds uncertainty
and sky-high productivity that remains far from bottoming,”
Jefferies analysts said.
(Reporting by Joel Jose, Aishwarya Venugopal and Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sriraj Kalluvila)
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