MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--True Religion Apparel, Inc., announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Michael Buckley as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Buckley was previously President of True Religion Apparel from 2006 to 2010. He will be responsible for developing and implementing the future vision and roadmap for True Religion. Mr. Buckley will report to the Board of Directors of the Company.
Michael Buckley is a leading retail and consumer products executive with over 30 years’ successful industry experience both domestically and internationally in growing brands and creating value. He most recently was Chief Executive Officer of Differential Brands Group (renamed Centric Brands upon the acquisition of Global Brands Group) a NASDAQ publicly traded company. Differential owned the brands Hudson Jeans, Robert Graham and Swims. Prior to Differential, from 2011-2016 he was Chief Executive Officer of Robert Graham Designs until its sale to Differential Brands Group for $180 million. Prior to Robert Graham, from 2006-2010 as President of True Religion Apparel, sales grew from $100 million to over $300 million, EBITDA from $30 million to over $90 million and market cap on NASDAQ tripled to $850 million. The retail platform expanded from 1 to 100 stores, the company expanded its product line to include t-shirts, woven shirts, knit tops, outerwear and a number of licenses including footwear, fragrances, eyewear, swimwear, and accessories. In both 2008 and 2009 True Religion was ranked the #1 most profitable US publicly traded apparel company out of all US publicly traded apparel companies, as measured by after tax profit margin.
Gene Davis, Chairman of the Board stated, “We are extremely excited and proud to welcome Michael Buckley back to True Religion Apparel. He brings years of experience in the men's and women's denim and sportswear arena, including his former role as President of True Religion. Michael has had many accomplishments in the apparel industry over the past thirty+ years and he brings a well-rounded and highly relevant skill set to the True Religion leadership team. We thank Farla Efros for serving True Religion as its Interim CEO over the past six months. We are pleased that she and the HRC Advisory team will continue supporting True Religion over the coming months.”
Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Buckley added, “I am thrilled to return to True Religion and lead the company as its new Chief Executive Officer at this exciting time in the brand's evolution. I look forward to working with the Board of Directors, Farla Efros and HRC Advisory, and the entire True Religion team.”
About True Religion Apparel, Inc.
In 2002, True Religion emerged onto the Los Angeles denim scene by blowing up the construction of the classic five-pocket jean. With its five-needle thread at two-stitch-per-inch process, the True Religion Super T stitch was instantly recognized for style that was unlike any other denim brand in the world. True Religion speaks to the uniqueness found in all of us. The brand is worn by athletes, musicians, and artists globally to express their individual style. Delivering an exclusive assortment of iconic styles, True Religion Brand Jeans focuses on producing high quality premium denim and sportwear for men’s, women’s and kids.
