H&M Adds To Diversity Journey, Hires Head Of Inclusion & Diversity For North America

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Nov 20, 2018, 11:00 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- H & M, Hennes and Mauritz Inc., one of the world's largest fashion retailers famous for offering fashion and quality at the best price in a sustainable way, is proud to announce the hiring of a new Head of Inclusion & Diversity for North America, Ezinne Kwubiri. This role aims to find new ways to make an impact and further ensure that inclusion and diversity occurs at all levels, and in all areas of the talent lifecycle at H&M North America.

This new role will work closely with the Global Leader of Diversity and Inclusiveness, Annie Wu, based in Stockholm. Kwubiri has a mandate to develop and implement a transformative strategy to make H&M an even more inclusive and diverse company in North America. She will lead the charge in how H&M thinks about, acts on, and achieves inclusion and diversity. This includes, but is not limited to, championing key I&D differentiators in the organization's ability to attract, develop, retain and promote the best talent throughout North America, ensuring H&M's global inclusion and diversity philosophy is fully-realized through an operationalized strategy and consistent and regular evaluation of transparent results that enable the organization to hold itself accountable, track, measure and communicate its progress.

"I am incredibly excited to join the H&M team and bring a fresh perspective to help create meaningful and visible change for our employees, customers and their communities," said Ezinne Kwubiri, H&M's Head of Inclusion & Diversity, North America.

Ezinne will report directly to the new President of H&M North America, Martino Pessina. Pessina has been with H&M for 17 years, beginning his new role in 2018, and currently oversees over 700 North American locations and over 18,000 employees. As President, Pessina plans to utilize his years of experience with the brand as well as keen insight into business growth and development across the US, Canada and Mexico and provide customers with an amazing omni channel shopping experience. Pessina brings an immense wealth of experience having successfully served many roles at H&M, including Business Controller for the head Buying Office and Head of Merchandising for Germany, France and Central Europe, leading to a role as Global Head of Merchandising. Additionally, he has held the roles of Country Manager H&M Sweden, Head of Global Expansion for the H&M Group and most recently Head of Global Sales.

"We are thrilled to have Ezinne join our H&M family," said Martino Pessina, President of H&M North America. "She brings a wealth of experience and expertise, and everyone in our organization is eager to learn, grow and fulfil our commitment to our employees, our customers and ourselves."

For more information please contact:

Emily Scarlett
[email protected]
Phone: 646.336. 3200
H&M, 110 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is quoted on Nasdaq Stockholm. H&M's business idea is to offer fashion and quality at the best price in a sustainable way. In addition to H&M, the group includes the brands COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories, H&M Home and ARKET as well as Afound. The H&M group has 47 online markets and more than 4,800 stores in 71 markets including franchise markets. In 2017, sales including VAT were SEK 232 billion. The number of employees amounts to more than 171,000. For further information, visit about.hm.com.

SOURCE H&M