Under Armour CEO and University of Maryland alumnus Kevin Plank announced Tuesday morning that he will be stepping down as the company’s president.
Patrik Frisk will be the company’s new president and chief operating officer starting July 10, according to a company news release. Frisk has almost 30 years of experience in the industry, most recently working as the CEO of The Aldo Group, an international retailer specializing in footwear and accessories.
Frisk has also held leadership roles in other big-name brands, such as The North Face and Timberland.
Despite the new leadership, Frisk will still report directly to Plank, who will remain Under Armour’s CEO and chairman. This change, along with other management changes, has been instituted to enhance the company’s digital presence, according to the release.
Plank, who founded the Baltimore-based company in 1996, has served as Under Armour’s president since August 2010; he also served as president between 1996 and July 2008.
In February, Plank announced his support for President Trump and his “pro-business” agenda during a CNBC interview.
“I’m a big fan of people that operate in the world of ‘publish and iterate’ versus ‘think, think, think, think, think,'” Plank told CNBC. “So there’s a lot that I respect there.”
In the days following Plank’s apparent support of Trump, several of the company’s celebrity endorsers criticized Plank’s comments. Under Armour stated its opposition to Trump’s travel ban in February, and Plank released a statement in June expressing the company’s “disappointment” with the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.
