Patrik Frisk

Early in his career, Frisk was involved in several enterprises in Gällstad, Sweden, including the Swedish apparel company Ivanhoe.[7] He helped launch Lager 157, a Swedish chain of specialty retail clothing stores, in the early 2000s.[3][7] He subsequently held senior positions at the Swedish outdoor-apparel maker Peak Performance and at W. L. Gore and Associates, the maker of Gore-Tex fabrics.[3] Later Frisk joined the American apparel and footwear company VF Corporation.[3]

Afterwards as president of The Timberland Company,[3][7] he was "credited with revitalizing the Timberland brand" during his three-year tenure at the company.[3] In April 2014, Frisk was promoted to coalition president for Outdoor Americas, with responsibility for The North Face, Timberland, JanSport, Lucy Activewear, and Smartwool brands.[8]

In 2014, Frisk became CEO of the footwear company and retailer Aldo Group.[3] Frisk restructured the company,[7] including streamlining its North American operations while expanding overseas, reassessing styles and brands, increasing sales to other chains,[9] establishing new systems and products, increasing research on customers,[10] digitizing the company,[9] and implementing Salesforce.com products to understand and communicate with customers.[11] Frisk's role was also to prepare the company for the founder's son, David Bensadoun, to take over.[7] Frisk left at the end of March 2017 to make way for Bensadoun as CEO.[3]

In 2017, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank asked him to become president and chief operating officer; in doing so Plank relinquished his own status as president and also re-filled the COO position, which had not existed since 2015.[3] Frisk assumed the offices effective 2017, with responsibility for go-to-market strategy and execution of its long-term growth plan. The company reorganized so that the heads of revenue, product, marketing, supply chain, and strategy reported to Frisk, who in turn reported to Plank.[12]

Frisk was brought in after Under Armour's two decades of North American growth dipped in 2017, particularly from competition via Nike and Adidas and from changing consumer buying patterns.[3][13] He launched a multi-year restructuring plan to cut costs, reduce inventory levels, tighten operations, and stabilize business.[13][11] He began refocusing the company on being a "performance" brand.[11] In 2018, his total compensation at Under Armour was $6,285,000.[4]

In October 2019, Plank announced that Frisk would become Under Armour's CEO in January 2020, while Plank would become executive chairman and brand chief.[14] In addition to being Under Armour's president and CEO, Frisk joined the company's board of directors.[15] He continues to report to Plank.[14]