Dive Brief:

• Just over a week after Nike's head of North America resigned, the retailer on Tuesday named a new one in Sarah Mensah. 

• Mensah will become vice president and general manager of North America, and Amy Montagne will take over her previous role as vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific and Latin America, according to a company press release. Both will report to Heidi O'Neill, president of Consumer and Marketplace.

• Aaron Cain was simultaneously named vice president and general manager of Men's, where he will report to Michael Spillane, president of Consumer Creation. He replaces Montagne in that role. All the changes are effective immediately.

Dive Insight:

As with most of the retailer's moves recently, these latest exec appointments were tied to the continued momentum of Nike's Consumer Direct Acceleration strategy.

The same was said in July when the sportswear giant named Montagne vice president and general manager of Men's, along with some other shuffling. The focus on this strategy, which emphasizes Nike's digital business and its owned stores over wholesale, has also led to layoffs as the retailer restructures certain areas of the business.

Several Nike executives have jumped ship to take on roles at other retailers in the first few months of the year, including Emma Minto, who left a senior position in Nike's women's business to take over as senior vice president and general manager at Crocs. A Nike marketing exec became Everlane's first chief marketing officer in February and Lululemon nabbed a merchandising exec from the sportswear giant for its head merchant in January.

The resignation of Nike's head of North America was the most recent exec news to make waves, though, as it came shortly after a Bloomberg report on her son's sneaker reselling business. In answering whether the events were tied, Nike told Retail Dive at the time that "Ann Hebert made the decision to resign from Nike."

In replacing Hebert, Mensah will lead all aspects of Nike's North American operations, including Direct, Marketing, Digital, Sales, Consumer Construct and Territories, the retailer said. Montagne will lead brand and business momentum in the APLA region.

Cain, who was most recently the vice president and general manager of Men's for North America, will focus on "creating product with deeper insights and driving even greater specialization through performance sport and sport lifestyle."