Why Marriott veteran Stephanie Linnartz is ‘taking risks’ to become Under Armour’s CEO

So for this year’s Most Powerful Women issue of Fortune, I sat down with Linnartz to ask exactly that question—and to examine the landscape for ambitious, experienced female executives like Linnartz who want to become CEOs, but who still get far fewer opportunities than their male counterparts.

“I always had this idea that the rewards of taking risks are, the great majority of the time, worth it,” Linnartz told me in late August, from her sunny new corner office at Under Armour headquarters in Baltimore.

After all, she wanted to be a CEO—and when the Under Armour job opened up, “I was ready to take that next leap.”

Linnartz had spent almost her entire career at Marriott, where she climbed to become No. 2 and the most senior woman at the world’s largest hotel chain. At Under Armour, she’s jumping to a struggling and much smaller company—one where she’s effectively the third CEO in four years to work for executive chairman and founder Kevin Plank. The company’s sales growth has stagnated; its share price has plunged 87% from its 2015 high; its once-buzzy brand is seen as anywhere from “inconsistent” (per Linnartz) to “second-tier” (per analysts); and its founder—who “stepped down” as CEO at the start of 2020 but who still owns 65% of the company’s voting shares—continues to land Under Armour in unflattering headlines.

So Linnartz is taking on a big turnaround job, on all sorts of fronts. She’s also following her longtime advice to other women on how to advance in corporate America: “Take the toughest, most difficult job or project someone can give you, because that’s how you move ahead,” is how Linnartz described her career philoso­phy to Fortune’s Leigh Gallagher eight years ago.

Taking on those sorts of jobs doesn’t always go as planned—as we have recently been reminded by the cases of Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, former Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer, and the broader data-backed phenomenon of the “glass cliff.” But her friends and colleagues are betting that Linnartz is up to the challenge at Under Armour. As Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, No. 2 on this year’s MPW list and a longtime business partner of Linnartz’s, told me: “She knows what the challenges are—and she’s going to absolutely overcome them.”

For more of Linnartz’s strategy to do so, read my full profile here. And for more on these themes, check out additional coverage of this week’s Most Powerful Women Summit below.

Maria Aspan
maria.aspan@fortune.com
@mariaaspan

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.

MORE FROM FORTUNE'S MPW SUMMIT

- Bigger is better. CVS CEO Karen Lynch is No. 1 on the 2023 Most Powerful Women list for a third straight year after scooping up health care companies to make CVS a one-stop health care shop. So what's the end goal? Lynch told Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell at the MPW Summit that a bigger CVS will lower costs and better handle the health care needs of an aging and ailing population. Fortune

- Skills pay bills. Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty says switching from degree-based hiring to skills-based hiring—a practice she implemented at IBM—will improve employers' diversity. “Access and aptitude are never equal,” Rometty said at MPW, “Where you start should not determine where you end." Fortune

- AI vs. authenticity. Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria told the MPW audience that rushing to incorporate AI into content production conflicts with Netflix's mission to produce authentic entertainment. She also pushed back against the idea that AI algorithms can predict the next smash hit. Fortune

- Playing the part. Connie Britton is many things—an actress with leading roles in Friday Night Lights and White Lotus, an investor, an activist, a Dartmouth and USC board member—but being "likable" is something she never considered, Britton said at the MPW Summit. Britton said it’s important to play complex, sometimes flawed women to combat societal expectations that women maintain a constantly genial personality. Fortune

- Top floor feedback. How can women rise to the top of finance and stay there? Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri, partner and COO of private equity firm TPG, said more mentorships and coaching are needed to boost women's representation. Meanwhile, SC Moatti, founding managing partner of Mighty Capital, argued at the MPW Summit that the growing use of AI demands a more diverse range of voices in the industry. Fortune

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Olaplex announced Supergoop chief Amanda Baldwin as its new chief executive officer, effective early 2024. Tracee Ellis Ross's Pattern Beauty appointed Christiane Pendarvis as co-CEO. 

ON MY RADAR

The soft-girl revolution: How young women are rejecting girlboss culture for a life of leisure Glamour

Spotify partners with Alex Cooper’s The Unwell Network The Hollywood Reporter

X removes hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts since attack, CEO says Reuters

PARTING WORDS

"I’m gonna take my trauma, I'm gonna take the loss of my daughter, and I’m gonna turn it into something good."

—Congressional hopeful Allie Phillips, who was inspired to run for office in Montgomery County, Tenn., after suing the state for not allowing her to have an abortion