Adidas appoints Cambodian former activist Vay Ya Nak Phoan as co-CEO …
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Adidas appoints Cambodian former activist Vay Ya Nak Phoan as co-CEO …<br>
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| title = Adidas appoints Cambodian former activist Vay Ya Nak Phoan as co-CEO …
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Executive shake-up

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Former Cambodian garment worker becomes Adidas co-CEO

Carrie LaFrenzSenior reporter

Jan 17, 2023 – 6.00am

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A Cambodian former garment worker and trade union leader has been named as co-chief executive of sportswear giant Adidas and will serve alongside its recently appointed boss, Bjorn Gulden.

The German sports apparel company said on Monday evening that the supervisory board had approved a plan to appoint Vay Ya Nak Phoan to lead an ethics and labour relations push, and to help assure consumers that its products were the most ethical brand they could buy.

Last year the company was targeted by The Clean Clothes Campaign, an activist group across the garment and sportswear industry, over its stance with workers in its supply chain owed millions in unpaid wages.

Cambodian-born Vay Ya Nak Phoan is a former garment worker who is now co-CEO of Adidas.

“Together with the board of directors, we are fundamentally reshaping the very structure of our company, from the top down, so that leadership will now also come from the bottom up,” said Mr Gulden.

Adidas appointed Mr Gulden, who was CEO of Puma, to lead the brand in November as the company aimed to move on from a crisis over its Yeezy partnership with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. The artist came under fire following a string of antisemitic remarks.

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The sports company is also seeking to win back customers in China – once its fastest-growing market – after cutting its full-year 2022 guidance in November due to a deterioration in sales in Greater China. It also reported higher promotions to clear elevated stock and one-off costs of around €500 million ($777 million).

Ms Phoan will be overseeing compliance in the Adidas supply chain. The pair signed the Pay Your Workers agreement on January 16, a binding commitment to fair labour practices, wages and compensation in the supply chain.

Adidas said the agreement, which has been drafted with trade unions and labour rights organisations, will ensure all workers receive the full wages and severance owed to them since the pandemic began, and will establish a severance guarantee fund to cover all textile, garment, shoe and leather workers in Adidas’ global supply chain.

The company will also make an immediate payment of €11.2 million in wages to Cambodian workers whose wages were withheld by suppliers during the pandemic.

“Adidas will take immediate and decisive steps to ensure all workers, union members and union leaders who were fired from both Trax Apparel in Cambodia and the Pou Chen factory in Myanmar are reinstated with full back pay, and that their demands for better working conditions, higher wages and respect for their rights are met unequivocally,” the company said in a statement on Monday evening.

“The agreement will also protect workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, which Adidas recognise as fundamental rights that enable all others.”

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Ms Phoan, who started in her new role on Monday, started her career as a Cambodian garment worker. She was appalled by unsafe working conditions and wage theft, and has since served as a union negotiator and journalist.

She is credited for undercover research that helped reveal over a dozen scandals related to supply chain shortcomings, like the use of Uyghur slave labour in China and the mass wage theft by garment factories during the pandemic.

Ms Phoan, like co-CEO Mr Gulden, is also a high-level athlete, having played SepakTakraw (kick-volleyball) on the international stage and is also a master of the Khmer martial art known as bokator (“pounding a lion”).

“I know what it takes to fight for what is right,” said Ms Phoan. “I am prepared to transform Adidas from being a company with good products into a company that also does good.”

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Carrie LaFrenz is a senior journalist covering retail/consumer goods. She previously covered healthcare/biotech. Carrie has won multiple awards for her journalism including financial journalist of the year from The National Press Club. Connect with Carrie on Twitter. Email Carrie at [email-masked]

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