VF Corp. has made leadership changes that will impact the Altra brand.
Jen McLaren has been named brand president of Altra. McLaren, who was previously brand president of Smartwool, will also assume the GM of VF North America Key Accounts role. In the latter position, VF said she will be tasked with driving strategic engagement with its large wholesale customers on behalf of all of its brands.
With the new roles, McLaren will continue to report to Martino Scabbia Guerrini, the EVP and president of EMEA, APAC and Emerging Brands at VF.
Todd Dalhausser, the former brand president of Altra, is now the global brand president of Dickies. He will report to VF Corp. interim president and CEO Benno Dorer and will also serve on VF’s executive leadership team. Dalhausser was tapped as Altra’s brand president in November 2018, shortly after VF acquired the brand in April of the same year. He was Altra’s first brand president following the acquisition.
“Todd is a talented business leader with a proven track record in building and growing brands, highlighted by the strong and consistent performance of our Altra brand under his leadership,” Dorer said in a statement. “We have the right strategy in place for Dickies and believe Todd is the ideal leader to assume responsibility for the brand to accelerate its profitable growth by connecting innovative workwear to consumer lifestyle tailwinds. The Dickies brand is an important contributor within the VF portfolio, and we look forward to consistently strong performance under Todd’s leadership.”
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Additionally, VF announced Icebreaker president Jan Van Mossevelde will assume responsibility for the Smartwool brand. This includes leading strategies “that build on and reinforce their industry leading positions in merino wool and natural fibers,” VF explained. The move, according to VF, was made to “focus on capturing future opportunities for strategic and operational synergies across these brands as a foundation for stronger and more profitable growth.”
VF also said each brand will continue to operate separately; however, they will collaborate “on a cohesive strategy to leverage their respective strengths and capabilities in addition to VF’s global business platforms more broadly.”
Van Mossevelde will continue reporting to Guerrini.
“VF is committed to nurturing its strong pipeline of internal talent,” Dorer said in a statement. “We are pleased to recognize and further develop three outstanding VF leaders with important and challenging new or expanded assignments.”
