Lululemon Athletica Inc. (TSX:LLL; Nasdaq:LULU) shares dipped 1.7% in after-hours trading January 6 following the company’s news that its founder, Chip Wilson, will resign from his role as chief innovation and branding officer effective January 29.
Wilson will remain as chairman of the 151-store yogawear chain that he founded in 1998 in a second-storey West 4th Avenue studio.
“I remain deeply committed to the company’s continued success,” Wilson said in a release.
“And, given the strength we’ve built into the organization over the past three years, I feel comfortable leaving the company with Christine Day at the helm of a world-class management team whom I believe will continue to elevate our world.”
Wilson sold 48% of the company for $108 million to two private equity firms in 2005. He shed a further 12% two years later as part of the company’s IPO. Since then, Wilson has told Business in Vancouver that he has “given” shares to employees.
Charity has increasingly been a passion for Wilson, who owns about one-third of Lululemon and has a net worth of more than $2 billion.
Wilson told BIV in December that his imagine1day charity, which builds schools in Ethiopia, is expanding to other parts of the African country.
(See “Chip Wilson changes approach to philanthropy” – BIV Business Today, December 5, 2010.)
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom