The latest HR moves made by leading textile and apparel companies.
Retail
Genesco
Parag Desai, senior vice president, chief strategy and digital officer at Genesco, will be retiring on Oct. 31.
Desai has been at Genesco since 2014. During his over 10-year tenure, he helped shape the company’s strategic direction and the transformation of its technology and data solutions.
“From leading critical strategic initiatives to transforming our technology capabilities, Parag has contributed to the strengthening of our business and successful execution of our Footwear First strategy,” said Mimi Vaughn, Genesco’s board chair, president and CEO.
When Desai retires, the footwear retail group says his duties will shift to other senior leadership team members.
Kohl’s
After 15 years on Kohl’s board, board chair John Schlifske is retiring, citing personal reasons. Succeeding him as chair with immediate effect is Wendy Arlin, who was chosen by a unanimous board vote.
Arlin has been a director on the board since 2023. Since May 2025, she has chaired the board’s finance and audit committees, roles she will continue to hold. She was executive vice president, chief financial officer of Bath & Body Works, Inc. from 2021 to 2023, when she retired. Her over three-decade career also included around 20 years at L Brands.
Kohl’s has also added Niren Chaudhary to its board and audit committee. Formerly CEO and chair of Panera Brands, Chaudhary has more than 30 years of experience at consumer brands like Krispy Kreme and Yum! Brands. His term is through the company’s shareholder meeting in 2027, at which point he is expected to stand for election.
Materials
Niber
Jochen Lagemann
As part of its push to become an ingredient brand, electrospun nanofiber membrane producer Niber has named a new chief commercial officer, Jochen Lagemann.
Lagemann, who joined the company on Aug. 1, comes to Niber with more than 25 years of experience in ingredient branding in performance apparel and textiles. His background includes time at insulation maker PrimaLoft, Gore-Tex maker W.L. Gore & Associates, embroidery and thread maker Amann Group and garment manufacturer Spectre.
At Niber, Lagemann will be focused on the material’s commercial and go-to-market strategy. He will also lend expertise on product positioning.
With this appointment, Niber is expanding its presence to Europe. Lagemann will be based out of Munich.
“Earlier this month, we shared our vision of building a structured ingredient brand around our electrospinning platform,” said Jaemin Park, co-founder of Niber Technologies. “Bringing Jochen on board is the next logical step in turning that vision into commercial reality. His experience in scaling ingredient brands will help us build lasting partnerships and establish Niber as the preferred technology platform for the world’s leading performance brands.”
Technology
Arkestro
Predictive procurement platform Arkestro has made two C-suite appointments.
Tom Aitchison, who has been a strategic advisor for the company, has been named president and chief operating officer. His experience includes roles at Coupa, Swrve and Introhive, and throughout his career, he has managed acquisitions as well as Coupa’s initial public offering.
Ron Rasmussen is joining the company as chief technology officer. He succeeds Ben Leiken, who is becoming Arkestro’s first chief product officer. Most recently, Rasmussen was co-founder and chief technology officer of Latitude 39, and his over 25-year career in software includes roles at Xactly, Quova and KnowNow.
“Arkestro is entering an exciting new chapter of growth, and building the right leadership team is essential to achieving our vision for predictive procurement,” said Rob DeSantis, CEO and co-founder of Arkestro. “Tom’s operational leadership and Ron’s technology expertise will help us scale every part of the business—from operations and customer success to product innovation and engineering—and continue defining the future of predictive procurement.”
Pitney Bowes
E-commerce solutions company Pitney Bowes has added La Vonda Williams to its board of directors with immediate effect. Williams’ past experience includes operational and financial roles at both public and private firms. Until 2021, Willaims was chief financial officer of Onegevity Health. Prior to that, she was vice president of equity derivatives operations at Goldman Sachs, and she was also previously chief operating officer of Solaire Generation, Inc.
“As we look to sustain our momentum, the board will benefit from her extensive experience in banking, the capital markets, corporate finance and transactions,” said Brent Rosenthal, chair of Pitney Bowes’ board. “She also possesses important perspectives pertaining to operational excellence and process improvements across corporate functions.”
Logistics
Keller Logistics
Mel Hudson-Nowak
Keller Logistics has named Mel Hudson-Nowak chief technology officer, adding to its senior leadership team. She will head up technology strategy and implementation across all of the group’s affiliates covering trucking, warehousing, freight and industrial properties. She will also lead developments on Keller’s warehouse management and transportation management solutions.
Hudson-Nowak was most recently vice president of IT compliance and risk management at General Motors Financial, and her more than 25 years of experience also includes roles at US Foods and Ford Motor Company. At US Foods, she oversaw the modernization of the company’s supply chain technology stack as well as the rollout of a fleet routing solution.
“Warehousing, trucking, brokerage and industrial real estate are fundamentally technology-enabled businesses today,” said Bryan Keller, CEO of Keller Logistics Group. “Mel brings a rare combination of enterprise-scale supply chain experience, hands-on digital transformation results and the energetic, people-first leadership style that fits how Keller shows up for its customers and its team every day.”
NFI
As part of its investment in e-commerce solutions, NFI has made two appointments. Brian Spencer has been named regional vice president, e-commerce sales, while Scott Webber is taking on the new role of regional vice president, e-commerce operations.
Spencer’s more than 30 years of experience includes roles at UPS, DHL eCommerce and OnTrac. And Webber’s two-decade resume spans retail and third-party logistics, with past roles at Limited Brands, Nautilus, Michael Kors and Geodis.
NFI is currently processing 30 million e-commerce orders per year, and it has created solutions that support digital fulfillment like automation and inventory visibility.
“Our customers are navigating a rapidly changing e-commerce landscape and need a partner with the scale and expertise to help them grow,” said Sid Brown, CEO at NFI. “Both of these gentlemen have built their careers around solving complex operational challenges, and their leadership will further enhance the solutions and support we provide the marketplace.”
ODW Logistics
Third-party logistics firm ODW Logistics has appointed John Labrie and Charlie DeLacey to its board of advisors, tapping into their backgrounds in transportation and logistics.
Labrie was most recently CEO of Quantix, coming back from retirement to lead the supply chain service company through a restructuring. He retired as of late July and still serves as a senior advisor to the company’s board of directors. His over three-decade career included 20 years at Con-way, as well as leadership roles at Network Global Logistics and MNX Global Logistics. He has managed diverse logistics services, such as contract logistics, managed transportation, less-than-truckload freight, freight brokerage and freight forwarding.
DeLacey is currently CEO of bulk transportation firm Kenan Advantage Group, which serves industries ranging from food and fuel to consumer products like apparel and CPG.
“John and Charlie bring the strategic perspective, operating discipline and growth experience that will help ODW achieve its growth objectives,” said John Ness, owner and CEO of ODW Logistics. “Their backgrounds leading complex logistics and transportation businesses will be invaluable as we expand our capabilities, strengthen customer solutions and continue positioning ODW for long-term growth.”
Matternet
Sanjay Shah
Drone delivery company Matternet has tapped Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief supply chain officer Sanjay Shah to serve on its board of directors.
Prior to joining Starbucks in 2025, Shah held roles at Gopuff, Beyond Meat, Tesla and Dell. His resume also includes vice president of North American customer fulfillment at Amazon.
After raising $33 million in May, Matternet is working to scale its FAA type-certified drone delivery platform across retail, food and healthcare.
“Drone delivery is entering a new phase, moving from early commercial deployments to scaled, everyday infrastructure,” said Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet. “Sanjay has spent his career building some of the world’s most complex supply chains and operating networks. He brings the discipline, judgment and executional depth required to turn breakthrough technology into infrastructure that can operate reliably at global scale.”
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
