Lululemon on Wednesday named Heidi O’Neill as the athleisure company’s new CEO, effective Sept. 8.

The news comes after the company has seen more than a year of disappointing performance and is embroiled in a dramatic proxy battle, with founder Chip Wilson criticizing the business.

Shares of the company sank more than 5% in extended trading.

O’Neill has held multiple roles at Nike, contributing to the sportswear behemoth’s growth. She also held positions at Levi Strauss, Hyatt Hotels and Spotify.

“Heidi is an inspiring leader and proven, consumer-driven brand strategist, with a rare ability to both imagine a new future for a brand and to create the structure and processes to deliver on that vision,” said Marti Morfitt, Lululemon’s executive chair of the board of directors, in a statement. “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.”

O’Neill said in a statement that she plans to focus on building off of the company’s core foundation and unlock growth in global markets. O’Neill will start with a base salary of $1.4 million, according to an 8-K filing.

“I am humbled by the opportunity and energized by what the team is already building,” she said in her statement. “I look forward to joining the company and helping to define and deliver the organization’s next chapter of success.”

Lululemon has been struggling with weak sales and increased competition, as well as mounting costs from tariffs. In its last earnings report, the retailer said it expects tariffs to cost the company $380 million this year.

Wilson, Lululemon’s largest shareholder, has also been placing increased public pressure on the company to make changes to its board of directors. He did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the appointment.

In a statement, GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders said O’Neill has “a very strong pedigree in the activewear and sporting space” and “has an intimate knowledge of how the industry works.”

“There will be some, mostly activist investors, who see O’Neill as something of a safe and traditional choice,” Saunders said. “This argument is partly valid as a lot of cultural change is needed at Lululemon in order to improve performance. However, in our view, O’Neill is her own person who will come with an agenda of change.”

While at Nike, O’Neill played a key role in the company’s doomed direct-to-consumer sales strategy, where the brand pivoted away from wholesale partners in favor of its own website and stores under former CEO John Donahoe. When current CEO Elliott Hill took over as Nike’s next chief executive, he made it a priority to walk back the direct-selling plan.

Prior to leaving Nike, O’Neill also oversaw product and innovation at a time when the brand faced criticism for falling behind on new products and focusing too heavily on the same legacy lifestyle franchises, Dunks, Air Force Ones and Air Jordans. While the franchises briefly led to a surge in sales, fueling Nike’s growth to a $50 billion-plus brand, they ultimately became ubiquitous in the market and viewed as uncool by some consumers.

Now, Hill is still working on unwinding that strategy and clearing inventory from those franchises from the marketplace, which has hit Nike’s margins and led to a decline in sales online.

Southwest Airlines forecast second-quarter earnings below analyst estimates, citing higher fuel prices, while holding off on updating its full-year 2026 forecast.

Southwest expects to earn between 35 cents and 65 cents a share in the current quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG expected 55 cents a share.

The airline in January forecast earnings per share of $4 this year, saying that it expected its new initiatives would pay off. Southwest has sought to increase revenue with checked bag fees and seat assignment fees.

“Achieving this outcome would require lower fuel prices and/or stronger revenue performance to offset higher fuel expense. The Company expects to provide updates to this guidance as appropriate,” Southwest said in an earnings release Wednesday.

Airlines have been either cutting their full-year forecasts or holding off on further forecasts because of volatile prices for jet fuel, generally their biggest expense after labor. They are also pulling back on their capacity growth plans to cut costs, which can drive up airfare when fewer seats are for sale.

Southwest said it expects its capacity to be flat to up no more than 1% in the second quarter, and unit revenues to rise by 16.5% to as much as 18.5% over last year.

“Demand continues to be strong, and we remain focused on controlling what we can control by managing costs, optimizing revenue initiatives, and directing capacity toward higher‑return opportunities,” CEO Bob Jordan said in the earnings release.

Here’s what the company reported for first quarter compared with Wall Street expectations, according to consensus estimates from LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 45 cents vs. 47 cents cents expected
• Revenue: $7.25 billion vs. $7.27 billion expected

Southwest swung to a profit of $227 million, or 45 cents a share in the first quarter, compared with a $149 million loss, or a loss of 26 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose nearly 13% to $7.25 billion compared with $6.43 billion in the year-earlier period.