The Bearhug Network: Check Out This Week's 34 Freshly Vetted Executive Profiles (Out of 261+ Added) in Consumer Brands and Enterprise Tech, All Ready To Take Your Call.
The executives who already know how to operate inside complexity are not updating their LinkedIn profiles, and they are not responding to cold outreach from firms they have never heard of.
That gap is what the Bearhug Network was built to close. It is the first searchable database of vetted executives available exclusively to CEOs, investors, PE partners, and board members who are actively building leadership teams. Every profile is real, verified, and ready for a confidential conversation. No job boards, no noise, no intermediary who has never run a P&L.
This week's featured selection spans 8 functions. Product and Design leads at 11 profiles, followed by General Management at 6, Sales and Commercial at 5, Finance and Strategy at 4, Marketing and Brand at 3, Operations and Supply Chain at 2, Digital and Ecommerce at 2, and People and Culture at 1.
The depth inside Product this week is notable. One director defined what a cushioning platform means for a consumer, a category, and a culture at one of the world's most design-intensive companies. Another built the connective tissue between global sport category design and every commercial function that carries product to market at a brand operating at planetary scale. A third brings 30-plus years of creative direction across hockey, golf, and performance categories with the kind of institutional design knowledge that cannot be hired from the outside of a Tier-1 brand. On the General Management side, one executive held full P&L accountability for a multi-country distributor network during a major territorial restructuring while simultaneously leading global marketplace strategy for 2 of the brand's highest-revenue performance categories. Another brings 25 years inside one of the largest sportswear businesses on earth, rising through women's merchandising to VP and GM mandates across Training, Kids, Sportswear, and Women's in North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.
The Finance and Strategy profiles this week carry unusual range. One director has been inside the organizational machinery where merchandise financial planning, demand signals, and channel strategy have to reconcile in real time as a 46-billion-dollar portfolio resets. Another brings Peace Corps service in Peru, impact-investing at a mission-driven VC firm, and growth strategy experience across 6 global markets before landing at a major footwear and apparel company.
Here is a fresh cross section of 34 of the hundreds of newly vetted executive profiles our team has added to the Bearhug Network this week, with dozens more being added daily.
BHRN-4483 🛠️ Product — Thirty-plus years inside one of the most design-intensive environments in global sports, from hockey equipment creative direction to golf footwear launched in front of the world's top-ranked player. What that tenure produces is an operator who can hold the line on design integrity across every category pivot a performance brand attempts. Brought to lead product design at a human performance brand, outdoor innovator, or design-forward consumer company ready to build category-defining footwear and apparel.
BHRN-4876 💰 Finance — When a PE-backed services platform is expanding facility by facility across multiple states, the CFO seat demands someone who can run M&A integration, manage lender relationships, and build financial infrastructure without losing control of the underlying business. This one has held CFO seats at four distinct companies across healthcare services, manufacturing, and industrial safety, plus a regional GM role inside a global conglomerate. Tested across ownership structures and industries, ready to bring that depth to a growth-stage platform.
BHRN-4494 💰 Finance — Running growth strategy across six markets at a global footwear and apparel company means holding a coherent plan together across consumer cultures that share almost nothing in common. The foundation underneath that work is unusual: Peace Corps service in Peru, impact-investing at a mission-driven VC firm, and an MBA built around strategy and international development. For a company navigating expansion where the markets look nothing like each other, this is the person who has already built the muscle.
BHRN-4490 🛠️ Product — When a mega-brand's licensing ecosystem spans hundreds of partners and categories across every major market, the person managing that architecture needs to understand brand equity, legal exposure, and operational risk in the same breath. Built that capability across a global athletic footwear and apparel institution, then crossed into enterprise ethics and compliance leadership at the same scale. Rare profile for boards and leadership teams who need someone who has lived inside global brand governance, not just advised on it.
BHRN-4485 🛠️ Product — Women's running footwear is one of the most competitive shelves in retail, where a single franchise decision echoes across every major market and thousands of retail doors at once. Rose from intern to Global Footwear Product Director at one of the largest athletic brands in the world, leading multi-season franchise creation across performance innovation and consumer positioning simultaneously. Few product executives have lived the full of global franchise management at that scale, and fewer still are ready to transplant that system somewhere it hasn't been built yet.
BHRN-4488 💰 Finance — Consumer research and innovation strategy built inside an advanced venture lab at a dominant global athletic brand, translating what people actually need into early-stage product direction. The career behind it runs through two of the most respected human-centered design consultancies in the industry and multiple San Francisco creative agencies before landing here. For brands struggling to close the gap between consumer signal and innovation pipeline, this director has built the function that does it.
BHRN-4482 ⚙️ Operations — Cargo theft, counterfeit goods, and in-transit risk at the scale of a global footwear and apparel giant are problems most supply chain security leaders have read about; this one spent a decade building the strategy and operating infrastructure to contain them at one of the most targeted consumer brands on the planet. West Point-trained, Army-seasoned, and executive-educated, this is the leader a board calls when supply chain security needs to move from reactive loss prevention into enterprise risk architecture.
BHRN-4487 🖥️ Digital — DTC transformation at category scale inside the world's largest athletic brand is a different problem than anything a mid-market commerce leader has faced. This executive ran global DTC strategy for the highest-revenue category at that brand during a full go-to-market restructuring, owning the digital flagship portfolio and membership infrastructure simultaneously. Built for brands scaling toward nine figures that need someone who has already navigated that level of complexity.
BHRN-4493 🏢 General Management — Nineteen years inside the world's largest sportswear company, culminating in GM accountability for a category portfolio and a flagship joint-venture brand launch across a 40-plus-country geography. When Nike built its most-watched women's growth bet into a new co-branded activewear line and needed someone to own the commercial rollout across Asia Pacific and Latin America, this operator already held the region, the category, and the channel relationships. Built for a VP or GM seat at a women's performance or activewear brand navigating the move from single-channel to omnichannel at scale.
BHRN-4486 🏢 General Management — Managing a global apparel and accessories portfolio across every major category, geography, and go-to-market model is the kind of complexity most organizations never fully solve. Twenty-five years inside one of the largest sportswear businesses on earth, rising from women's merchandising to VP and GM mandates spanning Training, Kids, Sportswear, and Women's across North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. A general manager who has run product creation, merchandising strategy, and multi-geography P&Ls at the same time, with a Kids reorganization that delivered 15% business growth as proof.
BHRN-4468 🖥️ Digital — Workforce productivity technology at the scale of a 77,000-person global athletic brand is a different problem than SaaS governance at a mid-size company. This engineer built the digital collaboration infrastructure from the inside at one of the largest consumer brands in the world, running the full stack from campus AV and retail digital signage through GRC software development and enterprise SaaS platforms like Miro and Lucidchart. Brings a rare combination of hardware-to-software breadth and large-enterprise employee experience depth to any organization rethinking how its workforce actually gets work done.
BHRN-4869 🛠️ Product — Accounting automation and financial close platforms are increasingly where AI capability gets purchased or built, and the product leaders who understand both the CFO buying motion and the underlying data infrastructure are rare. This one built AI-driven financial wellness products at a major open finance platform, led product strategy at a consumer credit fintech, and now works inside one of the largest SaaS platforms serving CFO offices globally. Fintech-native product depth across API-first platforms, machine learning applications, and enterprise financial workflows.
BHRN-4470 🛠️ Product — Licensed sports apparel stops being standard product management the moment a league, a retail buyer, and a fanbase all have to love the same garment. This director has run that exact problem at the largest sports apparel company in the world, leading NBA, WNBA, and NCAA product lines where performance specs and cultural identity have to coexist on the same hanger. Built for brands scaling a major league partnership where the product has to satisfy everyone at once.
BHRN-4503 🛠️ Product — Footwear innovation at the intersection of mechanical engineering and AI, across the two largest sportswear companies on earth. The director who built adidas's innovation pipeline from the inside for nearly two decades, including co-developing what became the world's first AI-powered athletic shoe, then returned to the company where the journey started. Rare in this industry for having operated deep inside both camps, which means pattern recognition on where performance product breaks before it reaches the consumer.
BHRN-4464 🏢 General Management — When a global sportswear brand pivots back toward wholesale and partner distribution after years of DTC-first strategy, the distributor relationships that were systematically deprioritized do not rebuild themselves. This executive owns that exact problem at one of the world's largest sportswear companies, holding full P&L responsibility for a multi-country third-party distributor network after a major territorial restructuring, while simultaneously leading global marketplace strategy for two of the brand's most commercially significant performance categories. Built for brands navigating channel mix rebalancing where distributor trust and category strategy have to move together.
BHRN-4471 👥 People & Culture — Large retail organizations break people strategy before they break financially, and the warning signs live in how HR is resourced against transformation. This People leader has navigated that exact pressure at a major multi-brand home goods retailer, then stepped into a pan-Asian retail group with tens of thousands of employees across convenience and health-beauty formats. Built for portfolio retailers facing divestiture or format refocus who need a People executive who knows what restructuring actually costs in workforce terms.
BHRN-4871 🏢 General Management — Most executives promoted into a PE-backed industrial platform have run a division, not a company. This CEO has done both, leading a nonwoven filtration and sanitation manufacturer after acquisition and before that taking a storage and organization platform through a full PE hold cycle. Built for boards that need someone who can read a deal thesis and walk a factory floor without losing a step between the two.
BHRN-4465 📈 Sales — Selling into golf clubs and pro shops requires a fundamentally different motion than consumer retail, and few directors have run both sides of that equation. At a global performance apparel brand, this commercial leader built wholesale channel partnerships and community-anchored activations; at a mobile-first club communication platform, those same skills got redeployed into B2B solution selling to club operators at scale. Built for brands where the deal requires navigating strategic accounts and direct operator sales across the active lifestyle space.
BHRN-4873 ⚙️ Operations — Running one of Europe's largest edible oil bottling facilities through a major capacity expansion while simultaneously navigating a global corporate restructuring is a test few plant leaders face at the same time. This operator has done exactly that, and before Cargill, led manufacturing operations for a family-owned B2B food ingredients group across Belgium and Southeast Asia. Suited for VP or Head of Operations roles where European food manufacturing scale meets cross-border site complexity.
BHRN-4870 🏢 General Management — Safety equipment companies operating in the middle market often stall when the platform strategy outpaces the operational infrastructure holding it together. Decades of P&L ownership at a major technical textile conglomerate and across first-responder PPE portfolios in the hundreds of millions built the foundation; leading a PE-backed work-at-height platform through active acquisition and international expansion into the UK market is where that foundation is being applied. Built for industrial safety and outdoor-adjacent businesses navigating the complexity of omnichannel distribution, inorganic growth, and the transition from niche operator to category leader.
BHRN-4481 📈 Sales — Retail execution breaks down when visual merchandising strategy exists in documents no one on the floor ever reads. This commercial lead has been selling a digital VM platform into the US market at a seed-stage retail tech company growing triple-digits year over year, with traction inside premium jewelry, streetwear, and performance apparel brands. Built for retailers and brands where in-store consistency is the gap between brand equity and brand erosion at the shelf level.
BHRN-4472 🎯 Marketing — Cultural relevance at the scale of global sport is one of the hardest marketing problems to solve, because the moment a brand announces it is chasing heat, the heat moves. This marketer built the playbook from the inside, leading collaborations with art and streetwear tastemakers at a brand where the gap between authentic and performative is measured in billions of revenue. The person a brand calls when cultural energy needs to be architected, not just amplified.
BHRN-4492 📈 Sales — Most activewear and outdoor brands hiring a merchandising director are getting someone who learned the craft at a mid-market retailer or a small brand. This merchandising director spent over a decade building women's and kids category line plans inside the most complex sportswear operation in the world, then added a second global sportswear perspective before either stop. Rare buy-side retail foundation underneath it all, which means the gap between what gets planned and what actually sells is not a blind spot.
BHRN-4469 🛠️ Product — Getting a performance product vision to survive intact across categories, markets, and commercial teams is where most design organizations lose the thread. At one of the largest athletic companies on the planet, this director built the connective tissue between global sport category design and the business functions that carry those products to market. Designed for brands where creative excellence and commercial execution have to move together at scale.
BHRN-4491 🎯 Marketing — Subscription loyalty inside a culturally loaded sportswear sub-brand is not a standard membership problem, and this operator learned that distinction building a kids footwear subscription retention framework from the ground up inside an athletic conglomerate. That same consumer empathy then scaled into connected membership and digital platform strategy for a globally iconic sneaker brand. A director-level builder who moves between zero-to-one product work and enterprise platform strategy without losing sight of the consumer relationship underneath.
BHRN-4499 🛠️ Product — Supply chain systems and data product architecture built at a global athletic footwear and apparel company operating at nine-figure-plus scale, with earlier enterprise systems work at one of the largest food-and-beverage chains on the planet. Most product directors at this level carry one of those two foundations. This one carries both, and translates between business operations and technology roadmaps without losing either side.
BHRN-4875 🛠️ Product — Enterprise software gets complicated when the customer base spans government agencies, construction firms, and design studios all running different implementation maturity levels. Bridging that gap required deep Salesforce architecture credentials earned across ANZ public-sector engagements, then applied inside a Nasdaq-listed design-and-make platform with nine-figure recurring revenue. A director-level operator who brings technical credibility with enterprise buyers and customer-outcome thinking into the same product seat.
BHRN-4476 💰 Finance — Planning at the intersection of a $46-billion portfolio reset and a CEO-driven shift back to wholesale-first distribution is not a spectator role. At one of the largest athletic companies in the world, this director sits inside the organizational machinery where merchandise financial planning, demand signals, and channel strategy have to reconcile in real time as the business rebuilds margin and re-sequences its go-to-market. Rare capability at the director level to hold both the analytical rigor of large-scale demand planning and the strategic context of a full brand turnaround.
BHRN-4874 🏢 General Management — Running a dairy manufacturing business in Southeast Asia means holding supplier relationships, plant discipline, and commercial growth in the same hand, often without the infrastructure larger companies take for granted. This Managing Director has done it across two markets, leading full P&L at a Philippine dairy producer and representing a Thailand-based ice cream and cheese manufacturer in a cross-border partnership with a global confectionery company. Built for food and beverage businesses navigating regional complexity at the growth stage.
BHRN-4477 📈 Sales — Pulling a major performance apparel brand back from over-promotion while keeping DTC channels productive is one of the harder merchandising problems in the industry right now, and this operator is inside it. Assortment strategy across eCommerce, full-price retail, and outlet channels for an entire hemisphere, layered on top of a decade building category management and go-to-market frameworks across Latin America and Emerging Markets from scratch. Brings a rare combination of brand-reset experience at scale and the regional fluency to run Americas-scope roles where North American playbooks consistently fall short.
BHRN-4466 📈 Sales — Multi-market assortment strategy breaks when a single merchandising model gets stretched across Asia Pacific and Latin America simultaneously. This executive built the product architecture for a global sportswear leader's speed-to-market assortment program before stepping into a VP role covering one of the enterprise's largest and most complex geographies. A decade at a second global sportswear company across three continents sharpened the cross-cultural fluency that multi-market expansion actually demands.
BHRN-4504 🎯 Marketing — Women's football went from cultural footnote to one of the fastest-growing brand platforms in global sport inside a single World Cup cycle. Directing global brand strategy for women's football at a nine-figure sportswear enterprise through that surge meant building campaigns that had to land across every major football market at once. Challenger brands and scaled consumer companies moving into women's sport will find someone who operated at the center of exactly that shift.
BHRN-4498 🛠️ Product — Global logistics technology at a leading athletic brand is a different kind of complexity, thousands of suppliers, real-time compliance demands, and a consumer expecting seamless delivery every time. Directing product for the digital systems that connect sourcing to last-mile fulfillment at that scale, while simultaneously owning data governance across the same infrastructure, builds a lens most product leaders never develop. Hire this person when platform modernization and supply chain integrity have to move together.
BHRN-4496 🛠️ Product — Cross-category footwear development at the craft level is rare enough. Doing it across performance running, outdoor innovation, streetwear hype product, and sport performance at global scale, then relocating into the Asia manufacturing ecosystem to lead it from the factory side, is something else entirely. A director-level product development executive built for brands that need someone who can hold both the material-science detail and the strategic category vision at the same time.
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