Veronica Wu Steps Down From VF Board
VF Corp. said today that Veronica Wu has decided to step down from the company’s board, effective immediately. She was named to the board in March, 2019.
Wu’s decision to step down was not the result of any disagreement with VF on any matter relating to VF’s operations, policies or practices, VF said.
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On Friday, controversial emails from Wu were leaked and obtained by Axios, where she allegedly discredited the Black Lives Matter movement. In an email from June 16, 2020, Axios reported that Wu wrote, “I don’t believe in Black Lives Matter. If anything I think they are the true racists trying to stir up things to make this country going [sic] to socialism or even communism potentially.”
The leaked email was allegedly a response to the news that Hone Capital, where Wu was managing partner at the time, would honor Juneteenth as a company holiday. Wu said she was “particularly not supportive,” Axios reported.
Axios also quoted a source who said that VF Corp. got wind of the email exchange, investigated its contents and found them to be legitimate earlier this year.
VF had no further comment Tuesday.
As a result of Wu stepping down, the size of the VF board will be reduced from 12 members to 11 members until a new director is identified.
Wu served on the finance and nominating and governance committees of VF’s board.
Wu launched Hone Capital in 2015 to pioneer a new model of venture investing that combines machine learning with angel networks to deliver consistent return to scale. Before that she served from 2013 to 2015 as vice president of Tesla Motors overseeing its China operations and led the introduction of the company’s first car in the China market in 2014. Earlier, she worked at Apple, Inc., Motorola and McKinsey & Co.
VF’s brands include The North Face, Vans, Supreme, Timberland, Kipling, and Jansport.
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