GNC makes leadership changes

A KFC marketer has joined the leadership team at GNC Holdings.

The health and wellness brand announced key leadership changes to support the ongoing repositioning of the business to drive future growth and expand the brand and product portfolio across the globe.

GNC named Ryan Ostrom as chief brand officer, effective July 1. Ostrom, who will report directly to  CEO and chairman Ken Martindale, comes to GNC from  fast-food brand KFC, where he has served as global chief digital officer since 2015. Prior to that, he spent eight years at Sears Holding Corp. where,  from 2012 to 2015, he was chief marketing officer of the Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands.

In addition, and in line with its effort to expand its global reach, GNC  announced it has promoted Carl Seletz to the role of chief global officer, effectively immediately. Seletz will lead the retail, wholesale and distribution functions as well as e-commerce support for the international channels and will oversee all business outside of the United States. Seletz has spent the past six years as the senior VP of international for GNC.

In other changes, Rachel Jones, most recently VP of international merchandising and marketing at GNC, has been promoted to VP of global brands. In this role, Jones will be responsible for product brand strategy development and execution across all GNC owned product lines.

"These organizational changes mark a significant step in the ongoing evolution of our company,” said Martindale. “Ryan, Carl and Rachel will all play critical roles in executing our strategy to create seamless customer experiences across channels, grow our global presence and further leverage the power of our brand and broad product portfolio."