Brands
Apurva Jani gets expanded marketing role at Intel India
MUMBAI: He’s spent a large part of his early career in the automotive industry at leading brands and firms. However, Apurva Jani has been at global chip leader Intel for the almost a decade, rising to director of marketing for Intel’s sales, communications, and marketing group in India.
Now the chip maker has expanded his remit to include the amplification of the company’s brand presence and driving growth in both consumer and B2B markets, according to a news report on storyboard18.
A mechanical engineer and a PGDBA in marketing from NMIMS, Apurva began his career at Tata Motors, moved onto Ford Motor as regional sales manager, then worked with Mahindra & Mahindra as DGM – marketing, crossed industries into health care as director of advertising promotions at GE Healthcare, before landing up at Intel as consumer marketing head in 2015, where he has stayed put since.
According to Apurva, he has have been successful in disrupting the norms in highly competitive industries over his 23-year long career. Intel probably is relying on him to do so once again!
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.
