CEO Gaffe of the Week: Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU)

To add fuel to the fire, Christine Day also announced that she’d be stepping down as CEO of Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) as soon as a successor was named, causing Lululemon’s share price to dive more than $10. Day’s departure was cited as being for “personal reasons,” but it can be taken a number of different ways.

First, it could be a signal that growth is in fact slowing and she’s running out of answers as to how to reignite the Lululemon engine outside of merely opening new stores. Second, it could be another affirmation that the onus of fault for the Luon yoga pants product recall falls squarely on her shoulders. The timing couldn’t be worse for her coming resignation, as investors were going to utilize the bullishness of this report (the company handily topped Wall Street’s expectations) to put the product recall safely in the rearview mirror, but now have it back in the forefront again.

We’ve seen far more foolish acts from CEOs for sure in this series, but it’s not often that a simple resignation can bring back bad memories for shareholders and wipe out in excess of $2.2 billion in market share in just three days.

Do you have a CEO you’d like to nominate for this dubious honor? Shoot me an email and a one- or two-sentence description of why your choice deserves next week’s nomination, and you just may see your suggestion in the spotlight.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool recommends Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), Nike, and Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UA). The Motley Fool owns shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) and Under Armour.

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