Alexander Wang is going through a big transition in terms of its marketing and communications approach. WWD has learned that Tanja Ruhnke and Souri Kim, Wang’s vice president of global branding and communications, and vice president of press and retail marketing, respectively, have left the company. In their place, Wang has brought on consultant Anjali Lewis to “provide leadership to our marketing and communications team,” according to a statement from the company.
Ruhnke joined Wang in 2012 from Rag & Bone and prior to that served as vice president of public relations at KCD Paris. Kim was also at KCD’s New York office before leaving for Moda Operandi in 2015, joining Wang in April 2016. Additionally, Wang has replaced two members of its design staff.
Lewis runs her own marketing consulting agency called The Curious Bird, and previously held associate publisher positions at Vanity Fair and In Style. She was also senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Donna Karan from 1993 to 2004.
These are not the only significant staffing changes for Alexander Wang recently. In June, Wang himself assumed a bigger role at his company, adding the position of chief executive officer and chairman of Alexander Wang Inc., while remaining creative director. This was a month after Rodrigo Bazan stepped down as president, moving to Thom Browne as ceo. As Wang took on the role of ceo, he also made two key hires. Mary Wang, unrelated to the designer, came on in the new role of executive vice president. She had spent 20 years at Donna Karan, most recently in a long-term run as president of DKNY. Around the same time Caroline Wang, Alexander Wang’s aunt, came on as executive vice chairman, joining from IBM, where she was vice president of marketing, information technology and business transformation in Asia-Pacific.