Lululemon Athletica Founder Dennis J. “Chip” Wilson, who remains one of the athleisurewear company’s largest shareholders, has stepped up his criticism of Lululemon’s current Board of Directors. Among other accusations, Wilson decried a “third failed succession planning process” that has the board in search of a permanent CEO following last month’s departure of longtime leader Calvin McDonald.
Wilson also has been pushing changes to the board itself, proposing three potential new members in late December 2025: Marc Maurer, former Co-CEO of On Holding AG; Laura Gentile, former Chief Marketing Officer of ESPN; and Eric Hirshberg, former CEO of Activision Publishing, the largest segment of Activision Blizzard.
“In an effort to spur the conversation forward, one of the candidates I put forward [Marc Maurer] has met with some directors,” said Wilson in a statement. However, “despite efforts, the board only engaged with our framework for the first time on Feb. 24, more than 70 days later. The response was weak and insufficient. The board indicated an openness to some unspecified director refreshment over a period of multiple years and a phased de-staggering of the board over time.”
Wilson is seeking faster and more definitive actions: “We think shareholders expect the board to act with urgency, clarity and in good faith to reach a sensible resolution that benefits all shareholders. It is our expectation that the board provide us with specific detail on how many incumbent directors will be retiring (and by when and who they are), and when our candidates will be added. If the board engages as shareholders expect, there is no reason to believe we cannot have this resolved before March 13.”
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Calls for a Brand Product Committee to Oversee Creative Processes
Wilson also called out the board’s rejection of his proposal to create a Brand Product Committee, which he called “part of highly effective oversight of the best creative businesses,” and something that he has seen work effectively at Amer Sports, Inc. Such a committee would “give focus to one of Lululemon’s most pressing needs in between regularly scheduled board meetings, without supplanting the role of the full board as the ultimate decisionmaker on material issues facing the company. The fact that the Lululemon board rejected this idea, in my estimation, reflects the lack of experience this board has in understanding how to leverage creative, high-performance brands,” he added.
Lululemon responded to Wilson’s latest criticisms by noting that the board has had “numerous meetings, with the goal of having a productive dialogue” with him, but added “We disagree with Mr. Wilson’s characterization of his interactions with the board.”
The Lululemon statement also disputed the conditions for meeting Wilson’s candidates, saying Wilson was barring the board from interviewing them “unless the board agreed to a full set of settlement terms.” The statement said it “welcomed” the preliminary meeting with candidate Maurer and also that it “remains open to engaging with Mr. Wilson as well as the company’s other shareholders and will continue to take actions that we believe are in the best interests of all the company’s shareholders.”
