On the Move: CEOs shifts at VF Corp., Prada; Amazon Steam grows

This week, VF Corporation’s CEO decides to retire, while Amazon’s S-team has four new members. Plus, C-level executives are joining Tyson Foods, dunnhumby and Fetch Rewards.

Steve Rendle will retire as CEO of VF Corporation, which is the owner of apparel brands Vans, The North Face, Timberland and Dickies. Rendle served as CEO for the last five years, and worked at VF Corp. for nearly 25 years. Benno Dorer, a lead independent director of the company’s board, will serve as interim CEO with a search is commenced. The news came as VF Corp. cut its outlook for fiscal year 2023, owing to weaker than anticipated consumer demand, a more elevated promotional environment, inventory issues, the impact of inflation in Europe and COVID disruptions in China.

Gianfranco D’Attis was appointed CEO of the Prada brand, effective Jan. 2, 2023. D’Attis comes to Prada from Christian Dior Americas, where he served as president. The move follows last week’s news that Andrea Guerra will become the next CEO of The Prada Group, which oversees a luxury portfolio that includes the Prada brand.

Melanie Boulden. (Courtesy photo)

Melanie Boulden was appointed EVP and chief growth officer at Tyson Foods, effective Feb. 6, 2023. In this role, Boulden will oversee consumer and corporate branding, innovation, R&D, communications, and consumer insights and analytics. Boulden previously held leadership positions at Coca-Cola, most recently serving as CEO of Coca-Cola North America. She is also a board member of Adobe, and has held marketing leadership roles at Reebok, Crayola, Kraft Foods and Henkel Consumer Goods.

Amazon made a series of promotions to its vaunted S-Team (or, Steam, as it is known internally), which is the senior leadership core of the ecommerce giant. Leaders joining the decisionmaking unit include:

• Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music
• Candi Castleberry, VP of Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
• Udit Madan, VP of transportation
• Rob Williams, AWS

Matt O’Grady was hired by customer data science firm dunnhumby as president of the Americas, driving growth in North and South America. O’Grady previously served as executive media consultant at media and data consulting firm 12th Street Measurement. He previously served in a number of leadership roles at Nielsen, including CEO of Nielsen Catalina Solutions.

Jordin Sparks. (Courtesy photo)

Jordin Sparks, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, was named brand ambassador of haircare brand Cantu Beauty. Sparks will help to spotlight Cantu’s community initiatives, including a partnership with Women Empowering Nations. "It's a dream to be working with Cantu to help uplift the next generation of women who are on their own unique and powerful journeys to building their bright futures," Sparks said, in a statement.

Fetch Rewards, the rewards app and consumer engagement platform that works with CPG companies, added a pair of C-level executives that will provide leadership as the company scales tech and operational capacity. They are:

• Charles McColgan joined as chief information officer, bringing experience as CTO at communications platform TeleSign and Microsoft-acquired security platform FrontBridge Technologies.
• Wade Bruce was promoted to chief technology officer from principal engineering lead, and will now lead all software engineering and DevOps. Prior to Fetch, he held tech leadership roles at insurtech startup Bunker, social media management startup Spredfast (now Khoros) and State Farm.