CALIFORNIA – US outdoor brand has announced that after 12 years with the company, Rose Marcario is this week stepping down from her role as president and CEO. Marcario has been instrumental in leading the company through the most prosperous time in its 47-year history, as well helping Patagonia to become recognised for its leadership in advocating and advancing climate and environmental policies.
Along with the Rodale Institute and Dr. Bronner’s, Marcario developed the Regenerative Organic Certification, claimed by some to be the highest bar of certification for workers/farmers rights, animal welfare and regenerative soil practices. She also founded the company’s in-house venture fund and Patagonia Action Works, a digital hub for environmental activists.
Marcario spearheaded the move for the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow from Utah to Colorado as a way to leverage brand strength for conservation goals, and she oversaw the company’s strategy to protect millions of acres of land including Bears Ears National Monument (Utah), Jumbo Valley (British Columbia) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska).
In 2018, Rose founded Time To Vote, a bipartisan coalition of companies committed to increasing voter participation in our elections. This movement now has nearly 500 companies and has received acclaim from Secretaries of State from both parties, and election experts from leading public policy institutes and universities.
Under her leadership Patagonia gave away more grants to grassroots activism than any time in its history. In 2015, President Obama awarded her as a Champions of Change for her support of working families. Just last month, she ranked number one on Fast Company’s Queer 50 list.
“Rose has grown our advocacy efforts in ways I could never have imagined. With Rose at the helm, we are leading an overdue revolution in agriculture, challenging this administration’s evil environmental rollbacks, growing a movement to increase voter participation in our elections and raising the bar on building our product in the most responsible manner possible,” said Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard.
Patagonia’s transition will be led by chief operating officer, Doug Freeman.