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Wolverine worldwide eliminates Active Group President role, Susie Kuhn departs. September 22, 2026 Wolverine World Wide, Inc. said in a regulatory filing that it eliminated the president position for Active Group, which includes Merrell, Saucony, Sweaty Betty, and Chaco. As a result, Susie Kuhn, president of the segment since October 2024, has left the company. Wolverine's brief statement filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission read, "Effective as of September 21, 2026, Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (the "Company") eliminated the position of President, Active Group. As a result, Susie Kuhn, the President, Active Group, left the Company on September 21, 2026. Ms. Kuhn's duties have been distributed throughout the organization." Further details weren't available. Prior to joining Wolverine, Kuhn served as Foot Locker's President of Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Over her more than 25-year career, she also held senior leadership roles at Nike, Converse, and Urban Outfitters. The changes come as the Active Group has become Wolverine's dominant segment, now accounting for about 75 percent of sales, after the firm phased out its Lifestyle Group following the sale of Sperry and Keds, as well as licensing out the Stride Rite business. The Work Group, Wolverine's other segment, includes the Wolverine, Cat Footwear, Merrell Work, Bates, HyTest, and Harley-Davidson Footwear brands and is led by Work Group President Justin Cupps. Wolverine formed its current Active Group and Work Group segments during the fourth quarter of 2022. Images courtesy of Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Mary Beth Laughton and Janice Tennant on embracing change, driving innovation and navigating transformation. The heads of REI and Merrell shared insights on leveraging nonlinear career paths and navigating leadership with clarity during tough retail challenges. September 17, 2026, 3:28pm In a conversation presented by Wolverine Worldwide, Mary Beth Laughton, president and chief executive officer of REI, and Janice Tennant, global brand president of Merrell, sat down at WWD's 2026 Women in Power Summit with Nikara Johns, social media director of Fairchild Media Group, to discuss the duo's nonlinear career paths and what they've learned in previous roles to bring about change and evolve their respective companies as leaders today. Tennant started her career on the beverage side, with Tropicana, and then moved on to Quaker and diapers before she made her way into the footwear realm. One of the most pivotal points of Tennant's career was when she was forced into an innovation role, which informed how she approached other opportunities that came her way thereafter. Tennant is always looking at whether there's a way to "innovate in the sector" she's in, not "just products but also the process and systems used." You may also like. Meanwhile, Laughton noted that the most pivotal moments in her career have been "saying yes to opportunities I didn't feel ready for." While she was at Nike, she was asked to lead the digital business in Europe as her first big general management role. Although she had many personal reasons to say no, she agreed to it. She garnered a leadership skill set and it gave Laughton the confidence to say yes to more things, including her subsequent first board role and chief executive officer positions. "What I've learned is that the confidence and the comfort can come later," Laughton said. "It doesn't always come before you take the role." While Laughton was working at Sephora more than a decade ago, she saw an opportunity to merge the worlds of stores and digital when the head of stores was retiring - she approached the CEO and asked to take over both. Over the years, she's pitched herself for new and evolving roles in response to the marketplace three or four times over her career. "I realized in the journey as I've advanced in my career that it's really important to not get too fixated on that there's one way to do things," explained Tennant. "The marketplace changes - and that's gonna change the type of roles and the opportunities that you need and your team needs." One example of this at Merrell was when the company realized the pace of the marketplace was rapidly changing around consumer engagement, so the team built an in-house agency team to respond in real time. Looking at the commonalities between the major household names of Nike, Pepsi and Sephora where Laughton has worked, she said they were all "customer-driven, customer-centric brands" and all have a "passionate consumer base that is emotionally connected to the brands" - which she brings to her current position at REI. Speaking about past experiences to inform how the two use their voice when advocating for change and a new direction, Tennant shared that people are always looking for clarity, especially when change occurs. Laughton concurred; at REI's first all-employee meeting, she showed a slide of REI's profit trend over the last 10 years - which she said the company hasn't had that level of transparency in recent times. This laid the groundwork for the change Laughton was looking to implement. "Mary Beth and I talked about the fact that we came in at difficult times in our organizations where things weren't really pretty. Having some clarity is really critical and it's also really important as women for us to bring that voice because sometimes we bring a different texture and perspective that helps to drive a different sort of energy towards the goal that you're trying to go for," Tennant concluded. Daily Headlines