Former Equinox Head Sarah Robb O’Hagan in New Role
Former Equinox president New Zealander Sarah Robb O’Hagan, who has been advising fitness brand Exos’ board since September of last year, will take the reins as chief executive officer, Fast Company reports.
Robb O’Hagan, a health and fitness industry veteran with an eclectic résumé, is an inspired choice to run the Phoenix-based Exos, according to the publication. With about 600 global locations, the 20-year-old company has a reputation as a trainer of elite athletes, but it’s also trying to broaden its appeal in a crowded space populated by the likes of Peloton, SoulCycle, and Mirror. O’Hagan has a track record of driving big changes – notably spearheading a major turnaround at Gatorade in the late 2000s. She’s also held leadership roles at Nike and Virgin Atlantic Airways. More recently, she served as CEO of Flywheel Sports and wrote a book called Extreme You, where she takes aim at the “everyone gets a trophy” ethos of the modern self-esteem movement.
Fast Company asks Robb O’Hagan what she thinks is the biggest change in the fitness industry over the past 20 years.
“Some of the ideas that we have for Exos – to be able to bring this ability to drive performance to a wider audience – I think those are now possible in a way that they just weren’t five to 10 years ago, because of two things: First of all, the technology exists to track basically everything and anything that you put in your body, do with your body, etcetera. But second, I do believe that the consumer, on a very wide scale, has become very engaged in the data. Right now, they’re tracking a lot, but they’re not really sure what to do with it. There’s data and there’s knowledge, and I think what Exos can bring to consumers is, really: How do you make sense out of all this?”
Robb O’Hagan is originally from Hawke’s Bay. She has been named among Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” and one of Forbes’ “Most Powerful Women in Sports”.
Original article by Christopher Zara, Fast Company, February 4, 2020.
