Lululemon CEO in 2026: Who Leads the Company Now and What’s Next

Introduction

If you search for “lululemon CEO” today, you may find an answer that looks simple but is already out of date.

For years, the name most closely associated with the role was Calvin McDonald, who became lululemon’s chief executive in August 2018. But McDonald stepped down at the end of January 2026, beginning a leadership transition at one of the world’s best-known athletic apparel companies.

As of August 31, 2026, lululemon is being led on an interim basis by Meghan Frank and André Maestrini, who serve as interim co-CEOs. That arrangement is temporary. Heidi O’Neill is scheduled to become lululemon’s CEO and join its board on September 8, 2026.

That makes the current CEO situation more interesting than simply naming one person. The company is between leadership eras, and the person taking over in September brings a very different background to the job.

Quick Answer: Who Is the Lululemon CEO?

As of August 31, 2026, lululemon does not have a single permanent CEO in place.

The company’s current interim co-CEOs are:

Meghan Frank, lululemon’s CFO

André Maestrini, President and Chief Commercial Officer

They took over the CEO responsibilities after Calvin McDonald stepped down on January 31, 2026.

The next permanent CEO is Heidi O’Neill, who is scheduled to start on September 8, 2026. She will also join lululemon’s board and be based at the company’s global headquarters in Vancouver.

So if you’re asking, “Who is the lululemon CEO?” the most accurate answer depends on the date.

What Happened to Calvin McDonald?

Calvin McDonald spent more than seven years as lululemon’s CEO.

He was appointed in August 2018 after previously leading Sephora Americas as president and CEO. Before Sephora, McDonald held senior leadership positions at Sears Canada and Loblaw Companies Limited. He also holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario.

His tenure at lululemon coincided with a major period of international and financial expansion.

According to lululemon’s announcement about his departure, the company more than tripled its annual revenue during McDonald’s leadership. The business expanded to more than 30 geographies, while China Mainland became its second-largest market. The company also broadened its product range beyond its traditional core, including greater emphasis on activities such as tennis and golf.

McDonald’s departure wasn’t announced as an immediate exit from the business. In December 2025, lululemon said he would step down as CEO and from its board effective January 31, 2026, then remain with the company as a senior advisor through March 31, 2026.

That distinction matters. His time as CEO is over, but his leadership period remains an important part of understanding where lululemon is today.

Why Did Lululemon Need Interim Co-CEOs?

After McDonald announced his departure, lululemon began a formal search for a permanent replacement.

Rather than rushing to appoint someone, the board created a transition structure around two existing executives: Meghan Frank and André Maestrini. Board chair Marti Morfitt also took on an expanded executive chair role during the transition.

The arrangement gave lululemon continuity while the board searched for a long-term leader.

Meghan Frank

Frank has been with lululemon since 2016. She joined as senior vice president of financial planning and analysis and became chief financial officer in 2020. Before lululemon, she held senior finance and merchandise planning positions at Ross Stores and J. Crew.

Her background is heavily rooted in finance, planning and retail operations. As interim co-CEO, she has continued serving as CFO while helping oversee the broader business.

André Maestrini

Maestrini joined lululemon in 2021 as executive vice president of international. He later became President and Chief Commercial Officer, with responsibility for the company’s regions, stores and digital channels across North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific and China Mainland.

Before lululemon, Maestrini spent 14 years at adidas in senior international roles.

That makes the interim leadership team an interesting combination: one executive with deep financial and planning experience and another with extensive international and commercial experience.

Who Is Heidi O’Neill, Lululemon’s Next CEO?

The biggest development in the lululemon CEO story is Heidi O’Neill.

Lululemon announced in April 2026 that O’Neill had been selected as its next chief executive following an extensive search. She is scheduled to begin on September 8, 2026.

O’Neill comes to lululemon after a long career at Nike, where she spent more than three decades in brand strategy, product, merchandising, innovation and operations.

According to lululemon, she played a major role as Nike grew from a company generating more than $9 billion in revenue into a global business exceeding $45 billion. She spent more than 15 years directly running apparel, merchandising, design and innovation businesses, including helping build Nike’s women’s business into a multibillion-dollar franchise.

That background is particularly relevant to lululemon.

The company isn’t simply selling technical clothing anymore. It has built a broader lifestyle and athletic brand, and its future growth depends on continuing to make the products, brand identity and customer experience feel relevant as it expands internationally.

O’Neill’s experience sits directly in that territory.

What Could Heidi O’Neill Change at Lululemon?

It’s too early to predict specific changes before O’Neill actually takes the job. There are no reliable grounds for claiming that she will immediately overhaul a particular product category, executive team or strategy.

But her professional background gives us some useful context.

Lululemon says the board selected her because of her experience in brand building, product innovation, operational execution and global growth.

Those areas also point toward some of the company’s biggest leadership challenges.

Product innovation

Athletic apparel is crowded. Lululemon’s reputation has been built partly on product quality and distinctive design, so keeping the product pipeline fresh matters.

A CEO with deep experience in apparel and innovation could put additional attention on that side of the business.

International growth

Lululemon has spent years expanding outside its original North American base. China Mainland, in particular, has become an important market for the company.

O’Neill’s international experience at Nike could therefore be useful as lululemon tries to scale globally without losing the brand characteristics that made it successful.

Brand relevance

This may be the most interesting part.

Lululemon’s value isn’t based only on fabric, fit or technical performance. Its brand has become closely connected with fitness, wellness and lifestyle culture.

The challenge for the next CEO is maintaining that connection while the company becomes larger and more global.

Growing a brand is one thing. Keeping it culturally relevant while it grows is harder.

Calvin McDonald vs. Heidi O’Neill

The two executives bring noticeably different career backgrounds to the CEO role.

	Calvin McDonald	Heidi O’Neill
Previous major role	CEO, Sephora Americas	Senior leadership at Nike
Primary background	Retail, consumer operations, general management	Apparel, brand, product and innovation
Lululemon role	CEO from 2018–January 2026	CEO beginning September 8, 2026
Major experience	Scaling consumer and retail businesses	Building global athletic apparel businesses
Leadership focus relevant to lululemon	Growth and international expansion	Brand, product, innovation and global growth

This isn’t a question of one background being better than the other.

McDonald’s career helped prepare him for scaling a consumer brand and expanding its reach. O’Neill’s career has been especially concentrated in athletic apparel and brand development.

That difference could shape the next chapter of lululemon.

What Does the CEO Actually Do at Lululemon?

The CEO’s job is much broader than approving new leggings or deciding what appears in a store window.

At a company like lululemon, the chief executive is ultimately responsible for setting the strategic direction of the business and coordinating a large organization around it.

That includes areas such as:

Long-term growth strategy

Product and brand direction

International expansion

Financial performance

Executive leadership

Store and digital strategy

Supply chain and operations

Corporate culture

Relationships with investors and the board

The CEO also has to make trade-offs.

For example, a company can pursue rapid international expansion, but that requires investment and creates operational complexity. It can launch more products, but doing so without a clear reason can weaken a brand rather than strengthen it.

That’s why the lululemon CEO position is strategically important even when customers never see the person making those decisions.

What Should Customers Watch Next?

Most shoppers aren’t interested in corporate leadership charts. They want to know whether the clothes remain good, whether new products are worth buying and whether the brand continues to feel relevant.

Those are actually useful things to watch during a CEO transition.

Pay attention to:

Product direction: Are new categories and products genuinely useful, or does the assortment simply become larger?

International stores: How aggressively does lululemon expand, particularly in markets outside North America?

Brand identity: Does the company maintain the distinctive identity that helped it grow?

Digital and physical retail: How does the balance between stores, online shopping and broader customer engagement evolve?

Innovation: Does the company continue improving fabrics, designs and performance products rather than relying mainly on brand recognition?

These indicators will tell consumers more about the next phase of lululemon than the CEO’s title alone.

Expert Insight: The Timing of the CEO Change Matters

The leadership transition comes at an interesting point for lululemon.

McDonald leaves after a period of substantial expansion, so O’Neill isn’t inheriting a company that needs to be rebuilt from scratch. She’s inheriting a much larger global business and the expectations that come with it. Lululemon itself has described the next phase around product innovation, cultural relevance, international growth and operational discipline.

That creates a different kind of CEO challenge.

The question isn’t simply, “Can the new CEO make lululemon grow?”

It already knows how to grow.

The harder question is whether lululemon can keep its product credibility and distinctive brand character as the business becomes larger and more geographically diverse.

O’Neill’s Nike background makes that especially worth watching. Nike has spent decades managing the tension between global scale, product innovation and cultural relevance. Her experience gives her a useful perspective, but the lululemon business is still its own challenge.

The smartest way to judge her tenure will be over time rather than through the first few announcements after September 8.

Final Takeaway

The answer to “Who is the lululemon CEO?” is changing in real time.

As of August 31, 2026, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini are serving as interim co-CEOs. Calvin McDonald, who led the company from 2018 through January 2026, is no longer in the role. And on September 8, Heidi O’Neill is scheduled to take over as lululemon’s permanent CEO.

O’Neill’s arrival marks more than a routine executive change. She brings decades of athletic-apparel and brand-building experience from Nike into a lululemon business that has already grown dramatically under McDonald.

The interesting part now is seeing what she does with that foundation: how she handles international expansion, product innovation and the difficult task of making a large global brand still feel distinctive.

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