Brands
Accor elevates Arish Mehta to steer Ibis revenue strategy in India
MUMBAI: Accor has appointed Arish Mehta as portfolio director of revenue management for Ibis, Ibis styles and Ibis budget in India, effective December 2025, sharpening its commercial focus across the fast-growing economy and midscale segments.
Mehta, a 13-year Accor veteran, will lead revenue strategy across the ibis brand portfolio, overseeing pricing, distribution and performance across rooms, food and beverage, and Mice businesses. The move underlines Accor’s push to deepen commercial rigour and accelerate portfolio-wide growth in the Indian market.
Most recently, Mehta served as director of revenue management at Accor, where he led total revenue strategy for a flagship Mumbai property. Under his stewardship, the hotel delivered room revenue growth of 29 per cent year-on-year and overall revenue of Rs 26.6 crore, crossing the Rs 100 crore mark in just its second year of operations. He also drove gains in occupancy, average daily rate and revenue generation index in a fiercely competitive market.
Earlier, as cluster revenue manager, Mehta managed multiple Ibis hotels across major Indian cities, improving RevPAR and RGI through data-led pricing, inventory control and demand forecasting, while building revenue capability across teams.
In his new role, Mehta will focus on strengthening commercial performance, driving consistency across markets and embedding data-driven decision-making across the Ibis portfolio, as Accor looks to scale both performance and profitability in India.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
