Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A new study finds that caregiving can increase the severity of menopause symptoms, Saudi Arabia is strengthening its women’s soccer league, and Tapestry’s chief didn’t see herself as a CEO—until she redefined the job. Have a wonderful Monday!
– New definition. Joanne Crevoiserat never saw herself as a CEO. “I’m not sure I’m the CEO type,” she recalls saying when, while serving as Abercrombie & Fitch’s CFO and then COO, she was asked why she didn’t throw her hat in the ring for the retailer’s open chief executive job.
Today, Crevoiserat is the CEO of Tapestry, the company behind Coach and Kate Spade. Under her watch, Tapestry announced in August an $8.5 billion plan to acquire Capri Holdings, the parent of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. The deal would double Tapestry’s revenue to $12 billion and is the largest fashion industry merger since the mid-2000s.
So how did Crevoiserat go from publicity-shy C-suite exec to a CEO architecting an undeniably bold deal? She redefined her definition of “CEO,” she tells Fortune senior writer Phil Wahba in a new feature story.
Joanne Crevoiserat in the lobby of Tapestry’s global headquarters in New York City. “We’re building here,” the CEO tells Fortune. “And I’d rather be a brand-builder and a talent-builder than a dealmaker.”Courtesy of Tapestry Crevoiserat came up as a finance exec, working at Walmart and Kohl’s before Tapestry. She thought of CEOs as “larger than life” and didn’t see herself that way. Rather than change who she was, she changed her perception of the top job.
Crevoiserat is still not the loudest CEO in the room. She shies away from the flashy, even skipping flagship brand Coach’s star-studded fashion show last month in favor of nosebleed seats at the U.S. Open. She sees her version of CEO not as a wallflower, but a “behind-the-scenes player who provides direction and cohesion and comes up with the strategy around which the company will coalesce,” Phil writes. That job description especially applies to a portfolio company like Tapestry, where other leaders and creatives are the faces of individual brands.
Tapestry will need that steadying force as it seeks to pull off the integration of Capri, which analysts have said comes with a major “execution risk.” Capri is in need of a turnaround, and its addition will make Tapestry a much more complex business.
Read more about what lies ahead for Crevoiserat and Tapestry in Phil’s feature.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
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- Family and fatigue. Nearly 40% of women experiencing menopause symptoms say those symptoms worsened as they spent more hours taking care of others, reports a soon-to-be-published paper introduced at last month’s Menopause Society Conference. The study comes at a time when the AARP says a majority of the country’s caregivers are female. Fortune
- Saudi's goals. Women’s soccer is a burgeoning force in Saudi Arabia with clubs poaching international talent, and the Saudi Women’s Premier League landing a three-year sponsorship with Lay’s last week. Saudi salaries and prize money are enticing, but some international players are still hesitant to play there due to poor women's rights. The Athletic
- Bargaining for better. Eight health care provider workforces have unionized since Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer. Employees at one unionized Planned Parenthood facility are looking for higher wages and more staff to accommodate out-of-state abortion seekers in a post-Roe world. Bloomberg
- Childbirth, rated. Kimberly Seals Allers took the negative hospital experience she had during childbirth and turned it into Irth, an app where parents of color can rate their experiences at different hospitals and with different doctors. More than 10,000 reviews have been posted to the app just since it released more than two years ago. NPR
- Expanding Universe. This year's Miss Universe pageant will feature two trans women for the first time: Miss Portugal Marina Machete and Miss Netherlands Rikkie Kollé. CNN
- Rest in peace. Louise Glück, who won the Nobel Prize for poetry in 2020, has died at 80. She was the first American-born poet to win the Nobel since T.S. Eliot in 1948. Washington Post
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Fidelity Investments announced Kristin Salisbury as regional vice president, relationship management.
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