H&M Names Aneta Pokucinska to Lead Its North American Business

H&M has appointed Aneta Pokucinska as managing director of North America and general manager for the United States, handing one of the Swedish retailer's largest markets to a 20-year company veteran who has already been running the region since July WWD.

Pokucinska reports directly to H&M group chief executive officer Daniel Ervér and sits on the company's executive management team, placing her among the senior leaders shaping the chain's global strategy. The appointment formalises a role she has been filling on an interim basis since July, when she stepped up from her previous post as regional manager for the Americas — a brief that covered H&M's business across the Western Hemisphere H&M Group.

Her path to the top of the North American operation runs through an unusually broad set of markets. Before the Americas role, Pokucinska served as regional manager for H&M North East Asia, covering Japan and South Korea — a stint that gave her direct experience of two of the most competitive retail landscapes in Asia The Japan Times. She joined H&M more than two decades ago, and her hometown is Katowice, Poland The Japan Times.

The US appointment lands at a busy moment for H&M's brand calendar. The retailer has selected Elie Saab — the Beirut-based fashion house known for embellished eveningwear — as its next designer collaboration, with a collection spanning womenswear, menswear and accessories including footwear. The range launches in select stores and online on 22 October WWD.

Designer collaborations have been part of H&M's playbook since the early 2000s, pairing high-fashion names with the chain's mass-market price points and distribution. The model is straightforward: a luxury house designs a limited collection, H&M produces it at scale, and shoppers who might never set foot in a couture showroom get access to the name for a fraction of the price. For the guest designer, the appeal is reach — H&M operates roughly 4,300 stores across more than 70 markets.

The Elie Saab tie-up will be one of the first major launches on Pokucinska's watch in the US, where H&M competes against fast-fashion rivals including Inditex's Zara and Shein, as well as Fast Retailing's Uniqlo. Managing that competitive set in the American market — the world's largest apparel economy — is the task she has now been given outright.

Pokucinska's rise through H&M's ranks, from regional postings in Asia to the Americas and now to a group-level executive role, mirrors the company's own efforts to balance its European base with growth in markets where it is still building share. The formalisation of her title gives her a clear mandate just weeks before one of the retailer's most visible product moments of the year.