Lululemon founder Wilson votes against reinstating directors

Vancouver, Canada — Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Chip Wilson announced that he voted against the re-election of Michael Casey and RoAnn Costin to the board of Lululemon Athletica. Wilson, who founded the company in 1998, had been living in Australia and was asked by the company to return and deal with a quality control issue that resulted in a product recall during 2013.



Wilson oversaw a management shakeup that resulted in a new CEO and head of product quality. Casey, a former Starbucks executive, recently rose to chairman of the board from lead director after Wilson announced his resignation as chairman to focus on other ventures. Costin is president of a private Boston-based equity company that focuses on investing in early and expansion-stage consumer product and retailing companies.



"After being asked by the board to come back from Australia to help the company recover from the product recall last year, I have decided to vote against the re-election of the company's outside board members,” said Wilson. “While I am excited about the new management team that I helped put in place, I am concerned that the board is not aligned with the core values of product and innovation on which Lululemon was founded and on which the company thrived. As a 27% shareholder in the company, I believe change is now needed at the board level to increase shareholder value."