Under Armour names two new senior executives in marketing and engineering departments

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Sep 25, 2018

Under Armour, Inc. has announced two new additions to its senior management team, naming Alessandro de Pestel as chief marketing officer and Ann Funai as senior vice president of engineering. 

De Pestel will report to president and chief operating officer Patrik Frisk, and will manage the company's global brand marketing strategy. He will be based at the company's global headquarters in Baltimore.

With over 20 years of experience in communications and global marketing, De Pestel most recently served as executive vice president of marketing, communications and consumer insights for Tommy Hilfilger Global/PVH Europe where he led the company's global alignment, planning and strategies. His other past experience includes serving as international communications director for Christian Dior Parfums and as vice president of global marketing for Omega Watches in Switzerland.

In her new role, Funai will manage engineering strategy across Under Armour, monitoring the company's fitness applications, global e-commerce platform and product feature set development. She will be based in Austin, Texas and report to chief digital officer Paul Fipps.

Previous to joining the company, Funai served as chief technology officer at talent management company PeopleAdmin, where she led the architecture, development, quality assurance, development operations, security, IT, and design teams. In this role, she spearheaded the acquisition of multiple companies and facilitated PeopleAdmin's merger with PowerSchool. She has also served in an executive role at IBM. 

Executives at Under Armour hope these new additions will strengthen connections between the company and its customers, boosting brand loyalty after the company experienced a drop in sales earlier this year. 

"The diversity of their global experience and insights will enrich and advance our marketing and digital capabilities to deliver an even more seamless experience to our consumers – whenever and wherever they engage the Under Armour brand," said Under Armour chairman and CEO Kevin Plank in a release. 

Recently, the company laid off 3 percent of its global workforce in an effort to cut costs and re-strategize as it battles top competitors Nike and Adidas.