Under Armour Inc. ousted two sports-marketing executives who were longtime associates of CEO Kevin Plank, said people familiar with the matter, after the brand conducted an internal review of their department’s spending.
This came one month after informing employees they couldn’t pay for strip-club visits on the company’s dime.
Ryan Kuehl who was senior vice president of global sports marketing and Walker Jones, senior director of sports marketing, were both removed from their roles last week. Other employees were informed of their departure later, but no reasons were given for the abrupt changes, employees said.
The investigation looked at whether the spending by the two executives was appropriate and how they ran the sports marketing department. This included examining how money was spent at events, gifts to athletes and nights out, the sources informed.
“Per company policy, we do not comment on specific personnel matters,” an Under Armour spokeswoman said.
Kuehl was hired in 2009 as the director in sports marketing and was later promoted in 2016. He was in charge of approving expenses and allocating funds for the department. Jones worked for Under Armour starting about a decade ago until 2014, leaving after questionable spending practices, according to sources. He was rehired in 2016.
