Cutter & Buck Overhauls Executive Suite

Sportswear marketer Cutter & Buck Inc. has appointed Ernie Johnson CEO, as well as to its board of directors. The Seattle-based firm also named Kaia Akre president.

Officers in charge of the company’s operational departments will report directly to Johnson with the product and consumer related departments reporting to Akre. Akre will report to Johnson.

Additionally, Michael Gats was tapped to serve as VP and CFO, and Jon Runkel was named VPf global sourcing and distribution.

Johnson joined the company in November 2002 as senior vice president and CFO. Prior to joining Cutter & Buck, Johnson was SVP, COO and CFO for Washington Mutual, Inc, Commercial Banking Division. He also was senior vice president and chief financial officer of West One Bank - Washington. He has held various senior level financial positions with Bank of America (formerly Rainier Bancorp/Security Pacific).

Akre joined the company in January 2006 from Nordstrom, where she held a variety of positions in the product development division in areas of creative resources, strategic planning and brand marketing. Prior to joining Nordstrom she was with Edelstein Associates Advertising in Seattle, considered a pioneer in vertically integrated apparel marketing.

Gats joined the company in June 1999 as director of retail finance and has since served as controller and director of reporting and analysis. Prior to joining Cutter & Buck, Gats was CFO and Controller of a privately held manufacturing and distribution company, director of finance at a Seattle-based apparel company and spent ten years in public accounting with KPMG.

Runkel has more than 30 years’ experience in the apparel industry. He joined Cutter & Buck in 1995 and has served as director of operations and as VP of production/international business. Prior to Cutter & Buck, Runkel managed distribution and manufacturing operations at other apparel companies.

The company also announced that its COO position will be eliminated. Bill Swint, who had held the COO position, has decided to leave the company.

The new appointments, come in the wake of John T. (Tom) Wyatt’s resignation. Wyatt, the firm’s president and CEO and a member of its board of directors, is leaving March 8 to become the president of GapBody, part of Gap, Inc.