Superdry names new chairman
Fashion retailer Superdry has appointed former Helly Hansen chief executive Peter Sjölander as its new chairman.
Due to take up his position on 29 April, he will succeed Peter Williams who will step down from the retailer’s board on the same day.
Sjölander headed up Helly Hansen from 2007 to 2015 and has been credited with delivering a step change in the performance of the brand through digital transformation.
Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years at Nike in a range of leadership roles across marketing, product and general management and also worked with Electrolux.
More recently, he has held a number of senior advisory and non-executive positions, including working with private equity funds where he has advised a number of brands and digital consumer businesses within their portfolios and overseen their growth and technology implementations.
Julian Dunkerton, founder and chief executive of Superdry, said: “Peter has a tremendous track record of driving value creation and is a true digitally-focused brand leader. The turnaround of Helly Hansen that he led when he was CEO, building a globally recognised brand with significant ecommerce revenues, was highly impressive, and through his work with leading global brands such as Nike, he has accumulated fantastic brand, digital and international experience, all of which will be invaluable as we emerge from the challenges of Covid and accelerate the reset of Superdry.”
Dunkerton thanked Williams for his support over the past two years. He added: “He has played a really important role since I returned to Superdry, in particular working with me to put in place a strong board and management team to enable us to deliver on our ambition, and I’m extremely grateful to him for all he’s done for the business.”
Williams said: “Having completed the executive team with the appointments of our new CFO and COO, and with the reset of the brand well under way, I feel now is the right time to step down. In Peter Sjölander the board has found an excellent candidate with highly relevant experience, and I wish him, Julian and everyone at Superdry every success for the future.”
