RYU expands executive leadership team

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Apr 29, 2019

Canadian athletic brand RYU Apparel Inc announced on Friday the appointment of three new members to its executive leadership team, which is dedicated to improving the company’s overall brand and product. 

 
The appointments are Ryan Lindholm as SVP of Marketing and Innovation, Danielle Hinan as Director of Brand and Bethany Young as Creative Product Design Director.
 
"The talent that RYU is attracting is impressive and we are honoured to be welcoming these new members on our journey," said Marcello Leone, CEO and President of RYU. 

"Our new additions to the team will add tremendous value to the brand. They each had several opportunities in the market, but chose to become part of RYU because they share our vision for where the brand is going and what we are creating."
 
As SVP of Marketing and Innovation, Lindholm is responsible for leading the marketing discipline to reach new heights in terms of innovation and design including through design thinking, product development, marketing and business strategy.
 
He joins RYU from Nike where he led 'advanced concepts'. He also held senior positions at AKQA and Razorfish. 
 
Likewise, RYU has brought on board Danielle Hinan as Director of Brand where she is responsible for driving insights that contribute to consistent brand strategy.
 
Prior to joining RYU, Hinan worked for brands such as Sweaty Betty, Monocle and Lolë, where she helped these brands expand and drive business growth into new markets globally.
 
Finally, Bethany Young joined RYU this past November as Creative Product Design Director. In this role, she is in charge of driving the strategy and executional roadmap for men's, women's and accessories at RYU, which includes assessing consumer needs.
 
She has an expansive design repertoire, which includes developing products at Lululemon, and Kit and Ace, while being mentored by industry leaders at Y-3 and Nike. 
 
The Vancouver-based company relaunched in November 2015 and has been in expansion mode across North America ever since. 
 
It currently operates nine stores including six locations in Canada and another three in the U.S. It has ambitious expansion plans to open on average five stores a year for the next five years for a total of 29 stores by the end of 2022. 
 
The company’s strategy has been successful with 11 consecutive quarters of growth. For the first nine months of 2018, revenue at RYU jumped 77 percent to $3.3 million.