Steve Lesnard currently serves as Sephora’s Global Chief Brand Officer, a job he helped develop. Lesnard’s primary responsibilities at Sephora include furthering the company’s efforts to build the brand’s global appeal, boosting the company’s efforts to increase customer engagement across all channels, and capitalizing on his extensive travels worldwide to speed up the company’s international expansion plans.
Steve Lesnard has held executive positions at The North Face, including Chief Marketing Officer and Global Vice President of Product Creation. Lesnard’s prior position was worldwide vice president and general manager of the running division at one of the most well-known athletic brands in the world. He oversaw a $5.3 billion company during that period and pioneered several industry firsts thanks to his leadership.
Lesnard began his career, which would last more than two decades, in 1997 when he accepted a position with another significant athletic company as their Global Sports Marketing and Footwear Project Manager. He signed and serviced the 1998 Olympic snowboarding teams from the United States and Canada. Two guys on these teams became the sport’s first Olympic gold medalists.
Subsequently, he was promoted to direct the Women & Cross brand for the company across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. His focus was on improving the retail sports experience for female customers. He opened the company’s first women-only retail boutiques in partnership with high-profile figures like Madonna’s choreographer Jamie King and international superstar Rihanna to get more girls interested in sports.
In his most recent roles, Lesnard was instrumental in developing the Running business into the company’s fastest-growing category for three consecutive years, contributing $5.3 billion in revenue to the company’s overall annual total. With the support of an innovation-driven and mobile-first strategy, could launch products like Lunar, the Vaporfly4 shoe, the Vapormax & React Innovations, form a strategic alliance with Apple, and expand its online running community from 500,000 to over 7 million users. Steve Lesnard and his family currently reside in Portland, Oregon.
