Authentic Brands Group has made another significant appointment.
Shortly after appointing Matt Maddox as president of the firm, it has enlisted Zina Zegans to contribute to its lifestyle portfolio.
Zegans, who most recently held the position of chief brand officer at Nicole Miller, has been designated as executive vice president of lifestyle and will supervise the companies in Authentic’s lifestyle sector: Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Forever 21, Lucky Brand, and Nautica.
Zegans brings over twenty years of expertise in marketing, licensing, branding, and merchandising. Before her tenure at Nicole Miller, she served as president of the licensing division of Steve Madden, overseeing the Steve Madden and Betsey Johnson licensing portfolios. She has also occupied senior management positions at Elizabeth & James, Brian Atwood, and Superga.
Authentic, currently valued at $20 billion, continues to broaden its footprint. Last week, the enterprise collaborated with Simon Property Group, Brookfield Corp., and Shein to establish Catalyst Brands, which will encompass Authentic’s lifestyle brands along with JCPenney. Furthermore, the appointment of Maddox, the previous CEO of Wynn Resorts, has reignited speculation that Authentic might consider going public again, a strategy it began exploring in 2021 but retracted after CVC Capital and HPS Investment Partners, along with other stakeholders, including BlackRock, Simon Property Group, Leonard Green & Partners, and others took substantial shares in Authentic.
Reviving those ambitions or seeking new investors remains a possibility, sources indicated, referencing a recent Bloomberg report that the investor group is in negotiations to purchase BlackRock’s equity stake, valued at $3 billion or above. BlackRock’s Long-Term Private Capital Fund had acquired the stake for $875 million in 2019, but that fund is being wound down.