Authentic Brands Group has made another key hire.
Just days after naming Matt Maddox president of the corporation, it has brought Zina Zegans on board to work on its lifestyle portfolio.
Zegans, who most recently served as chief brand officer at Nicole Miller, has been named executive vice president of lifestyle and will oversee the companies in Authentic’s lifestyle division: Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Forever 21, Lucky Brand and Nautica.
Zegans has more than two decades of experience in marketing, licensing, branding and merchandising. Prior to Nicole Miller, she was president of the licensing division of Steve Madden where she managed the Steve Madden and Betsey Johnson licensing portfolios. She has also held senior leadership roles at Elizabeth & James, Brian Atwood and Superga.
Authentic, which is currently valued at $20 billion, continues to expand its reach. Last week, the company teamed with Simon Property Group, Brookfield Corp. and Shein to form Catalyst Brands, which will consist of Authentic’s lifestyle brands as well as JCPenney. In addition, the hiring of Maddox, the former chief executive officer of Wynn Resorts, also brought to the surface rumors that Authentic may once again consider going public, a plan it set in motion in 2021 but pulled back after CVC Capital and HPS Investment Partners, along with its other shareholders, which include BlackRock, Simon Property Group, Leonard Green & Partners and others purchased significant equity in Authentic.
Reviving those plans or finding new investors are both on the table, sources said, citing a recent report by Bloomberg that the investor group is in talks to buy BlackRock’s equity stake, which is valued at $3 billion or more. BlackRock’s Long-Term Private Capital Fund paid $875 million for the stake in 2019 but that fund is being closed.