The Legend of Lululemon’s CEO Grows

When we last left Lululemon (LULU) a week or two ago, CEO Bob Meers had gone on CNBC and refuted claims that he had exaggerated his resume. He failed, however, to offer any proof and didn’t respond to any of my subsequent inquiries.

Now, a story in The Economist says, “Bob Meers, the chief executive, likens Lululemon’s position to that of Reebok (which he also headed) in the early 1980s.” (Actually, it was the Reebok “division” in the U.S. that he ran for a few years in the 1990s — and not for as long as he claims on his resume. His bigger title, with the entire company, was as executive-vice president.)

At the same time, a Dow Jones Newswire story quotes money manager Mary Lisanti, a fan of Lululemon, as saying that “They brought in Robert Meers, who used to run Reebok’s women’s apparel business.” (Actually, Reebok didn’t have a women’s business, per se — and there is nothing on his resume to say that he ran the “women’s” business. Meers was the head of the company’s "Specialty Business,” which included the Rockport and the Greg Norman line of clothes — each of which had their own presidents, even though he claims in his Lululemon resume to have been president of both.)

The beat goes on…