Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Two female executives launch Be a Breadwinner to help women achieve their financial goals, and OpenAI CTO Mila Murati talks about the company's new video generation platform. luck Senior writer Maria Aspan reports on the sudden resignation of Under Armor CEO Stephanie Linnertz. Have a wonderful Thursday!
– An abrupt end. CEO Stephanie Linnertz thought it would take three years to turn Under Armor around. Instead, she retires after just a year.
Under Armor, the long-struggling sportswear company still run by founder Kevin Plank, announced Wednesday that Plank will replace Linnertz as CEO, effective April 1. Then he announced. Mr. Plank becomes Under Armour's fourth CEO in four years, having first “resigned” as president. (He has since served as executive chairman and still owns 65% of Under Armor's voting stock.)
It's a shocking departure, but not a surprise, for Linnertz, who was previously the No. 2 and respected executive at Marriott International. Linnertz knew, as he told me last summer, that he was making a big bet on the turnaround job at Under Armor. luck profile.
“I believe in taking calculated risks,” she told me at the time. “I don't believe in being reckless.”
But it was clear even early in Linnertz's tenure that Planck did not want to relinquish control of the company he founded in 1996. See that article for a quick interview about his new CEO. ) And Mr. Linnertz said: a lot Plank ultimately had to fix most of the problems: slowing growth, a plummeting stock price, a faded “second-tier” brand and a founder who couldn't stop stirring up controversy. As I wrote in October:
In recent years, ambitious and experienced executives (many of them women) have taken on the job of CEO, working under their predecessor or founder in an attempt to satisfy him while solving some of the problems he caused. There are several examples of people taking on CEO jobs.
…Everyone has a boss to keep happy. The vagaries of working for a successor boss, even a ridiculously well-paid CEO, aren't necessarily gender-based. But with women making up just 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs, it's easy to see how ambitious women still often have to take such risks to reach the top of corporate America. That is surprising.Career choices made by people [former Walgreens CEO Roz] brewer, [current X CEO Linda] Ms. Yaccarino, and potentially Ms. Linnertz, also pointed to the question of whether executives are yet to overcome the “glass cliff,” a data-backed phenomenon that suggests women must accept riskier opportunities in order to advance. This raises questions about whether we should overcome this problem alone.
As my colleague Lyla McClellan recently reported, female CEOs already have shorter tenures than their male counterparts, making replacing male founders particularly difficult. Nextdoor announced last month that co-founder Nirav Tolia will replace CEO Sarah Friar. This week, Linnertz's sudden departure from Under Armor brought another bleak data point.
Read my full story on Linnertz's departure from Under Armor here and her original profile here.
maria aspan
maria.aspan@fortune.com
@mariaaspan
The broadsheet is luck'A newsletter for and about the world's most powerful women. Today's issue was edited by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
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– Words of the wise. Two female executives announced the launch of an event and newsletter aimed at providing women with strategies and plans to achieve their financial goals. Newset CEO Daniella Pearson and JPMorgan Wealth Management CEO Christine Lemkau share how their new “Be a Breadwinner” platform will prioritize personal wealth He said he would teach people. WWD
– Drafted in Denmark. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has announced that the country will begin recruiting women into its armed forces as part of its commitment to gender equality. luck
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parting words
“The theme is that they're very comfortable with who they are, which was definitely not the case when they were younger. And there's a kind of pride that's taken hold that probably wasn't there before.”
—Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus describes her observations from guests on her podcast series interviewing older women.
