Chip Wilson


Dennis J. "Chip" Wilson is a Canadian billionaire, businessman and philanthropist, who has founded several retail apparel companies, most notably yoga-inspired athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica Inc. Wilson is widely considered to be the creator of the athleisure trend. In 2016, he organized his personal and business interests into the holding company Hold It All Inc.

Early life

Wilson was born in southern California in 1956. Both of his parents were athletes at college, and his father was a physical education teacher. In 1980, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Calgary.

Career

In 1979, Wilson founded his first retail apparel company, Westbeach Snowboard Ltd, which sold apparel targeted at the surf, skate, and snowboard markets. He sold Westbeach in 1997 and founded Lululemon Athletica Inc in 1998. As of 2016, his personal and business interests are maintained through Hold It All Inc.
Wilson served as CEO of Lululemon until 2005, when he sold a 48% stake to private equity firms Advent International and Highland Capital Partners. In 2007, an IPO was offered by Lululemon Athletica Inc. on Canadian and US exchanges. In January 2012, Wilson retired from his executive post as chief innovation and branding officer, but remained chairman of the board of directors. In December 2013, he stepped down from his role as non-executive chairman.
In June 2014, Wilson raised concerns that the Lululemon board was not aligned with the core values of product and innovation on which the company was founded, and on which it thrived. Six months after the board's reconstitution, the company's share price rose from a June 2014 low of $36.26 to $65.33, a change in market capitalization of over $4 billion.
In August 2014, Wilson sold 13.85% of his ownership in Lululemon to Advent for approximately $845 million.
In February 2015, Wilson stepped down from Lululemon's board of directors, saying, "I have achieved the goals I set when I came back, and after careful thought, I believe that now is the right time to step away from the board. I leave behind a new and talented management team and new board construct."
In December 2015, in an interview with Bloomberg Business, Wilson said, "Three years ago, when I was chairman and Lululemon was worth twice as much as Under Armour, I personally was thinking of buying Under Armour."
In June 2016, Wilson published an open letter to shareholders of Lululemon stating that it had "lost its way" and given up market share to Nike and Under Armour, after he was denied the opportunity to speak at the company's annual meetings.

Personal life

He has five sons, two from his first marriage, to Nancy. He is married to Shannon Wilson, one of the original designers of Lululemon and co-founder of Kit and Ace, along with his son JJ Wilson. They reside in Vancouver, BC.
In 2004, Ernst & Young named Wilson its Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year for Innovation and Marketing., Forbes ranked Wilson the 10th-wealthiest Canadian and 401st in the world, with an estimated net worth of $2.9 billion.

Awards and honors

In 2014, Wilson and his wife, Shannon Wilson, received honorary doctorates from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. One year later, they received honorary doctorates from the Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Philanthropy

In 2007, Wilson and his wife, Shannon Wilson, launched imagine1day, a charity dedicated to improving education conditions in Ethiopia. The organization's goal is for all Ethiopians to have access to quality education free of foreign aid funding by 2030. As of June 2016, imagine1day had 487 partner schools, 35 of them built from the ground up by its team. Also, 1,130 school clubs had been created, with half run by girls. 66,420 books, 180 science kits, and 160 sports sets had been provided to students. Imagine1day estimates that over 252,000 lives are transformed annually through its education and training.
The Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University is a $36 million project. Chip and Shannon Wilson pledged $12 million to the school with the goal of solidifying the future of BC's technical apparel industry. Lululemon, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and the Province of British Columbia serve as additional financial partners. The school broke ground in fall 2013 and will include new teaching studios, gallery space for student exhibitions, and a "usability lab" where students can design, prototype, and market product concepts. The school was scheduled to open in 2015 and was expected to increase the number of design students by 57%.
Wilson and his wife are sponsors of the annual Child Run. The Child Run is the largest family fun run in Vancouver, with a 5 km for runners and walkers on a route through Queen Elizabeth Park and a 1 km fun run, followed by a carnival celebration. Proceeds support British Columbia's Children's Hospital and its fight against childhood cancer. In 2014, the run had over 6,000 participants and raised over $1 million.
In 2013, Wilson and his spouse launched Whil.com, a website designed "to convince professionals to meditate a few times a day in increments of just 60 seconds" by making it more accessible.

Criticism

Wilson appeared in a CBS interview in 2015 where he apologized for past statements regarding the Lululemon yoga pant scandal, saying, "I'm responsible for what comes out of my mouth. And if that's what was interpreted then I fully apologize. Yeah. I'm sorry."
On November 18, 2013, Wilson was the subject of The Colbert Reports "Alpha Dog of the Week"; Stephen Colbert sarcastically criticized Wilson for his views on the influence of birth control and for having said that some women's bodies "just actually don't work" for his company's pants.