The California brand’s decision to merge marketing and environmental impact under one EMEA leadership function is a structural statement – and the executive chosen to lead it comes with credibility on both fronts.
For most outdoor brands, marketing and environmental impact are run as parallel departments – one measured in reach and conversion, the other in grams of carbon or acres of protected land. Patagonia has a different structure. The California-based outdoor brand has appointed Amanda Calder-McLaren as Senior Director of Marketing & Impact for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) – a newly created position that places storytelling and environmental accountability under the same leadership.
Calder-McLaren started in the role on April 13, 2026. She will be based at Patagonia’s EMEA headquarters in Amsterdam, relocating from Switzerland with her husband and two children.
A profile built across two tracks
The appointment draws together two distinct strands of Calder-McLaren’s career. On the brand side, she spent close to two decades across the outdoor and apparel industry, including a senior role at The North Face as Senior Brand Marketing Director EMEA, where she oversaw large-scale campaigns alongside programs to broaden access to the outdoors. Earlier posts included work with Adidas TERREX, Technogym and Wahoo; she also served as Chief Marketing Officer at performance brand Montirex before moving into fashion as Global Vice President of Brand Communications at Hugo Boss.
Beyond brand marketing, Calder-McLaren is a co-founder and former chair of Opening Up The Outdoors (OUTO), a European collective working to remove structural barriers to inclusion in outdoor spaces and across the outdoor industry. That combination – proven commercial reach alongside hands-on work on access and representation – is precisely the brief Patagonia has designed around the role.
In her new role, Calder-McLaren will work with Patagonia’s global leadership, EMEA teams and local communities to oversee both brand communications and the delivery of the company’s environmental and social initiatives in the region.
