Coats announces new Non-Executive Director
- 16 Nov 2017
Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market, announces that Hongyan Echo Lu (Echo) will join the Board as a Non-Executive Director, effective 1 December 2017. In addition, she will join the Remuneration Committee and the Nomination Committee.
Echo has twenty years of global HR, operations and general management experience. She spent ten years at Tesco plc in a variety of senior leadership roles, including Asia HR Director, Chief Operations Officer, China and Property Director, UK/Ireland. Most recently, she was the Managing Director of Homebase Ltd as part of Home Retail Group plc. She started her career at Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical company, where she spent seven years in a series of HR roles, including two years as HR Director, China.
Echo has previously been a Non-Executive Director of Dobbies Garden Centres and also served as a Steering Committee Member of the Trestle Group Foundation, a non-profit organisation which supports women-led businesses in emerging economies.
Mike Clasper, Chairman, said: ‘I am delighted that Echo has agreed to join the Coats Board. Echo’s direct managerial experience of global companies operating in markets in Asia, particularly North East Asia, will bring very pertinent additional local and regional insight. She also has practical knowledge of empowering women entrepreneurs in emerging economies which will bring invaluable perspective to the Board.’
Echo has a Bachelor of Arts in International Economy and Finance from Fudan University, Shanghai and a Master of Science in Industrial Relations and Human Resources from West Virginia University. She is also a native Mandarin speaker.
For more information and to request a photo of Anne Fahy contact:
Kristina Blissett, Head of Communications kristina.blissett@coats.com
T +44 (0)208 210 5084, M +44 (0)7714 539887
Notes to Editors
About Coats
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market. At home in some 60 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents. Revenues in 2016 were US$1.5bn.
Coats’ pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company leads the way around the world: providing complementary and value added products and services to the apparel and footwear industries; applying innovative techniques to develop high technology Performance Materials threads and yarns in areas such as automotive, composites and fibre optics; and extending the crafts offer into new markets and online.
Headquartered in the UK, Coats is a FTSE 250 listed company on the London Stock Exchange.
- Each year we make enough thread to go into 8 billion pairs of jeans - that’s one for every person on the planet
- Every month Coats produces enough thread to stretch all the way to the sun
- More than 450 million pairs of shoes are made every year using Coats’ thread
- More than 100 million car airbags are made using Coats’ Performance Materials thread every year
- In 1879 Thomas Edison used Coats’ thread in his experiments to invent the light bulb
- Our Red Heart knitting and crochet yarn brand has been named ‘America’s Most Recommended’ by the Women’s Choice Award for three years running
- Our flame retardant Performance Materials threads can withstand temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius
- Coats is the second largest supplier of zips to global brands