Leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market, Coats has roped in Hongyan Echo Lu (Echo) as a non-executive Director. She has 20 years HR, operations and general management experience. Echo started at Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical company, where she spent seven years in a series of HR roles. She spent 10 years at Tesco and was the managing director of Homebase. A bachelor of arts in international economy and finance from Fudan University and a master of science in industrial relations and human resources from West Virginia University, Echo is a native Mandarin speaker.
Echo has previously been a non-executive director at Dobbies Garden Centres and served as a steering committee Member of the Trestle Group Foundation, a non-profit organisation which supports women-led businesses in emerging economies. Coats hopes to benefit from her direct managerial experience in global companies operating in Asia, particularly Northeast Asia.
UK-based Coats, is at home in some 60 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents. Coats is the second largest supplier of zips to global brands. Each year it makes enough thread to go into eight billion pairs of jeans.
