A mysterious, long-serving Lululemon Athletica board member has resigned from her position, just several weeks after various media outlets raised questions about her education and professional background.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lululemon (LULU) said that Rhoda Pitcher, a board member since 2005, had on August 3 resigned from her position on the board and from all committees that she served on. Pitcher’s resignation “is not due to any disagreements with us on any of our operations, policies or practices.”
Fortune reached out to Pitcher and will update this story if she responds. Lululemon’s filing said she is leaving to “pursue other opportunities.” The resignation comes after Pitcher was elected to serve another three-year term on the board. Her current term had been set to expire at the 2018 annual meeting.
Pitcher generated headlines earlier this summer when The Street began calling board members at Lululemon to learn how they felt about Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s recent public complaints about the company’s financial performance. But when the news outlet struggled to reach out to Pitcher, it questioned if she was a real person.
As Fortune and others pointed out, Pitcher is not a phantom board member, though her education and professional background was thin for a board member serving on a company of Lululemon’s size. Pitcher is a managing partner of her own management consulting firm and her bio says that she holds a master’s degree from University Associates, which isn’t a standard, well-established college name you’d expect a board member to have. In fact, there doesn’t appear to be any details about the school’s master’s program online.
Pitcher, along with Staples (SPLS) co-founder Thomas Stemberg, had been Lululemon’s longest serving board member. The company had said that she was a valued member because her “considerable knowledge of our business gained from more than 10 years as a director of Lululemon makes her well suited to provide advice with respect to our strategic plans, culture and marketing programs.” She was paid $217,257 last year for her services.
