Andi Owen is stepping down as president and CEO of MillerKnoll, the Zeeland, Mich.-based company announced Monday, ending a tenure that saw one of the contract furniture industry’s most iconic brands navigate a merger, a pandemic hangover, and the choppy post-COVID workplace market.
Owen will officially retire on June 30, though she has already begun a leave of absence and resigned from the companyâs board, effective immediately. Owen cited âimportant family mattersâ as the reason behind the timing of her departure. Jeff Stutz, who has served as chief operating officer since last September, will perform the duties of CEO in the interim and assume the title officially when Owen’s retirement takes effect at monthâs end.
The transition, described by the company as mutually agreed upon with the board, comes at a pivotal moment for MillerKnoll. The company â formed in 2021 when Herman Miller acquired Knoll â is still working to integrate its sprawling portfolio of brands and sharpen its competitive position in a contract furniture market that has yet to fully recover its pre-pandemic footing.
Owen came to Herman Miller in 2018 after a 25-year career at Gap Inc., where she most recently served as global president of Banana Republic, leading 11,000 employees in over 600 stores across 27 countries. She brought a consumer products sensibility to a company with deep roots in the contract world. She oversaw the landmark Knoll acquisition and the subsequent rebrand to MillerKnoll, a move that generated both excitement and skepticism across the industry. She also, famously, generated some turbulence of her own when a 2020 video of her urging employees not to âdwellâ on their bonuses during the pandemic went viral â a moment that underscored the challenges of leading a legacy manufacturer through extraordinary disruption.
Stutz is about as inside as it gets at MillerKnoll. He joined Herman Miller back in 2001 and spent more than a decade as CFO, a stretch that included navigating both the Great Recession and the aggressive growth that eventually led to the Knoll deal.
Board chairman John R. Hoke III praised Stutz as an âaccomplished executive and tenured company veteran.â The board says it will conduct a comprehensive CEO search with the help of an executive search firm, considering both internal and external candidates.
MillerKnoll reiterated its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter guidance Monday, signaling that the leadership change isnât expected to rattle near-term results. The company will release its full fiscal year numbers on June 24.
The search for a permanent CEO will be worth watching. MillerKnoll has extraordinary brand assets â Herman Miller, Knoll, HAY, Muuto, Design Within Reach and more â but the work of turning that collective into a consistently profitable, well-coordinated enterprise is a difficult task.