AAPN Announces Lynsey Jones as 'AAPN Transition Advisor'

AAPN Announcement

This announcement was issued by AAPN's Managing Director Mike Todaro September 8, 2022. It introduces the industry to AAPN's new transition advisor and incoming Executive Director Lynsey Jones.

When the virus hit all of us in early 2020 and everything stopped, it gave us time here at AAPN to reflect on our past and ‘imagineer' our future. We had already started thinking about who could eventually replace Sue C. Strickland and me.

We made a dream sheet list of potential candidates - all AAPN members of course - and began vetting them. We knew that the ‘sum of the parts’ of the two of us was unique, but we were also acutely aware neither of us had ever worked in the industry, had never ‘walked the walk’ of sourcing and production.

On top of that, AAPN is a unique ‘no rules, no hours, no supervisor’ radical business model. We ARE the staff. During our 28 years together, every project/event/meeting/execution fell fully into our laps. So we had to find someone tough, flexible, independent, always ‘on’, driven and passionate.

Just as importantly, we needed a proven, respected, high-profile industry veteran, with C-Suite experience, industry connections, a global perspective, supply chain savvy and street smarts - in other words, someone smarter than us - and now we have found her - Lynsey Jones.

Lynsey is a long time AAPN member who shows up and takes charge at our events. She is educated in textiles and proven in business. She is passionate about driving relationships & business in the Western Hemisphere. She’s the one.

Over the past several months, as Lynsey wound down her career at Carter’s, taking time to transition out of Hong Kong and back on staff at Carter’s with big plans and projects, we began to discuss her eventually replacing Sue and me. The details quickly fell into place. Lynsey left Carter’s in late July to become our Transition Advisor and eventually the Executive Director of the AAPN.

With a two year planned transition, we are tremendously excited by her vision of membership growth, new unique value-add services, innovative programs, potential acquisitions and so much more.

We introduce you to Lynsey Jones:

CAREER & EDUCATION HIGHLIGHTS: Carters Inc., 5 years. Last position was Vice President Global Sourcing Strategy & Transformation; held additional titles in both Global Sourcing & Production Planning and Operations during her time there. She was based in Atlanta for 2.5 years and Hong Kong for 2.5 years. VF Corporation, 10 years. Held positions in Global Sourcing, Western Hemisphere Sourcing and Responsible Sourcing during her tenure. She was based in New York, Greensboro, Los Angeles and Panama, where she was part of the leadership team that built the VF Sourcing Latin America hub in Panama City.

Abercrombie & Fitch, ~2 years. She started her Apparel career as a Sourcing Associate in Columbus, OH.

North Carolina State University, MS in Textiles (2005) and ITT Fellow, and a BS in Textile Technology & Apparel Management (2002).

Lynsey is a proud member of the Wolfpack Nation and actively participates on the Industry Advisory Board for the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State. She is married to Michael Jones and has a sweet pup named Rey. Lynsey and her family reside in Charleston, SC where they are heavily involved in the volunteer and foodie communities.