Smythe, the Toronto womenswear brand founded in 2004, has appointed Ana Mihaljevic as its first chief executive officer, installing a former Canada Goose North America president to run operations while its cofounders step back to creative duties.

Mihaljevic arrives with a wholesale and planning pedigree that reads like a sourcing executive's résumé. She spent a decade at Canada Goose, most recently as president of North America for nearly four years until February 2026. Before that she was chief commercial officer and senior vice president of sales operations and planning. Earlier roles include director of business planning at Marc by Marc Jacobs and director of sales for Jones Signature and Jones New York Jeans.

The move creates an all-female leadership trio at the top of the company. Mihaljevic will lead operations and growth strategy; cofounders and designers Andrea Lenczner and Christie Smythe retain creative direction and product vision.

What does this change for the brand?

The numbers behind the appointment explain the timing. Annual new customer acquisition through Smythe's e-commerce channel grew more than fivefold between 2021 and 2025. The brand went online only in 2017, opened its first stand-alone store in Toronto in 2022, added a Calgary location in 2024, and has a third Toronto store slated for early 2027.

That is a channel mix shifting fast from wholesale toward direct. Key retail partners still include Neiman Marcus, Revolve and Holt Renfrew. Running a fivefold DTC growth curve and a three-store fleet requires infrastructure the cofounders have not had to build before. Hence a CEO whose career has been commercial operations, not design.

"As Smythe has grown, so has our ambition for what the brand can become," Lenczner and Smythe said in a statement. "Her leadership enables us to deepen our focus on creative vision and product, while the three of us work together to build operational excellence and infrastructure for growth."

Note the phrasing. The cofounders are naming the gap themselves: infrastructure. Growth of that pace tends to strain inventory planning, allocation and lead times before it strains anything else.

Mihaljevic, for her part, framed the move in brand terms rather than operational ones. "I chose to wear Smythe long before I joined the company because it has such a clear and instinctive understanding of how women want to dress and feel in their clothes," she said. "Working alongside Christie and Andrea, we will build on that foundation, grow Smythe with purpose, reach more women and realize the full potential of a brand that has always understood how the right clothes can change the way a woman shows up."

A twenty-year house scaling its channel

The company began in 2004 with tailored blazers and has since broadened into coats, dresses, blouses, pants and knitwear — a category expansion typical of premium contemporary brands seeking year-round revenue rather than a shoulder-season business. Lenczner was previously a buyer for Holt Renfremore, Smythe worked in design at The Gap, and both attended McGill University.

The celebrity roster attached to the brand — Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie among them — is marketing capital. The fivefold customer-acquisition figure and the 2027 store opening are the metrics that will tell whether the new structure works.

For vendors and retail partners, the practical question is whether Mihaljevic's arrival brings disciplined order planning and delivery performance as volume scales. Her Canada Goose track record suggests it will. The Toronto store opening in early 2027 will offer the first visible test of the growth infrastructure she was hired to build.