Levi Strauss & Co. has appointed Chris Callieri its first chief provide chain officer, a title he held at Victoria’s Secret and Tory Burch. He gives 20 years of strategic expertise associated to sourcing and logistics, and a document of advocating for greater than “check-the-box” company sustainability.
Callieri experiences on to Levi’s President and CEO Michelle Gass. “Chris is an business veteran with an distinctive observe document of delivering outcomes at scale who will assist us strengthen provide chain agility, drive innovation and advance our sustainability objectives,” Gass wrote on LinkedIn.
“I’m thrilled to hitch LS&Co. at such an thrilling time for the enduring Levi’s model, a real class chief that thrives on the middle of tradition,” Callieri mentioned in a press release.
It’s potential that Callieri will assume a number of the work beforehand dealt with by Chief Working Officer Liz O’Neill, who retired in March. Tasks and titles shifted for not less than six C-suite roles on the time, together with chief product officer and chief industrial officer.
Gass, who has emphasised a direct-to-consumer focus for the blue denims producer, additionally praised Callieri’s “deal with driving operational excellence” to make the “provide chain change into extra tech-savvy, extra agile and higher capable of ship best-in-class service to our followers and prospects worldwide.”
Sourcing drives Levi’s emissions
The denim big’s sourcing and logistics are central to its internet zero goals for 2050. Ninety-nine p.c of Levi’s complete emissions derive from a provide chain that extends throughout 30 international locations, largely in Asia.
The Science-Primarily based Targets initiative validated the corporate’s decarbonization objectives again in 2018, early for the sector. Levi’s 2024 local weather transition plan, issued in October, supplied a snapshot, uncommon within the attire business, of its near-term steps towards internet zero. Past emissions, water and biodiversity methods are focus areas in Levi’s provide chain.
Model management
Callieri is closing out two years as chief provide chain officer for Victoria’s Secret in New York Metropolis, the place he oversaw the sourcing of uncooked supplies in addition to product improvement, manufacturing and logistics.
“Transparency is nice enterprise — it builds belief, highlights the intentional selections we make in our product improvement and demonstrates our suppliers’ commitments to sustainability,” he informed Inexperienced Retail World in February, referring to the model’s rollout of Digital Product Passports (DPPs). A QR code on bras permits customers to open particulars on a smartphone concerning the product’s sourcing origins, similar to household farms in Alabama.
Earlier than that, Callieri spent 4 years in the identical position at Tory Burch in New York, which included setting and executing sustainability technique.
He joined the ladies’s high-end model after two years as an Adidas senior vp of product operations. “It’s actually one in every of my favourite manufacturers, and an organization that takes sustainability very, very critically,” he mentioned on the Highway to Champagne podcast in 2021. A part of the attraction, he mentioned, was the corporate’s partnership with Parley for the Oceans to make use of waste plastic for sneaker textiles.
Callieri has spoken of listening to junior members of the workforce. “A few of us are very results-oriented and also you are likely to deal with the issue, you are likely to deal with what must be executed,” mentioned Callieri, then at Tory Burch, on the podcast. “If you happen to ignore that human dimension to actually perceive how all people’s excited about it, you’ll lose a few of your effectiveness.”
Sustainability as ‘aggressive benefit’
Callieri holds an MBA from Cornell College and a grasp’s of philosophy in environmental administration from College of Cambridge. He was president of the organic society as an undergrad on the College of St. Andrews.
His consulting stints embody a gig at sustainability-focused agency ERM in Chile, the place he’s from. Later, after transferring to Washington, D.C., he held an environmental and social due diligence position on the Inter-American Growth Financial institution earlier than changing into senior vp at Accenture’s HRC North America. As principal with an attire and retail focus, he had an opportunity to construct A.T. Kearney’s sustainability follow.
