Yang Lu’s initial interest in technology began when she emigrated to the U.S. from China at the age of 12 and didn’t speak a single word of English. “Technology was a big equalizer for me,” she says. “When I walked into a computer science and programming course in high school, nobody knew the language.” It gave Lu an opportunity to learn something new along with her peers.
She joined luxury giant Tapestry eight years ago, partly to steer a technology transformation the company was undergoing as a result of a string of acquisitions, including the 2015 purchase of Stuart Weitzman, and that of Kate Spade two years later. Tapestry worked quickly to consolidate and harmonize all technology, across all brands, and for nearly all geographies, excluding China.
