Designer Brands Management
Management criteria checks 3/4
Designer Brands' CEO is Doug Howe, appointed in Apr 2023, has a tenure of 3.17 years. total yearly compensation is $7.92M, comprised of 15.3% salary and 84.7% bonuses, including company stock and options. directly owns 1.04% of the company’s shares, worth €3.19M. The average tenure of the management team and the board of directors is 2.7 years and 11.6 years respectively.
Key information
Doug Howe
Chief executive officer
US$7.9m
Total compensation
| CEO salary percentage | 15.32% |
| CEO tenure | 3.2yrs |
| CEO ownership | 1.0% |
| Management average tenure | 2.7yrs |
| Board average tenure | 11.6yrs |
Recent management updates
Recent updates
CEO Compensation Analysis
| Date | Total Compensation | Salary | Company Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 02 2026 | n/a | n/a | US$11m |
| Jan 31 2026 | US$8m | US$1m | -US$8m |
| Nov 01 2025 | n/a | n/a | -US$27m |
| Aug 02 2025 | n/a | n/a | -US$32m |
| May 03 2025 | n/a | n/a | -US$29m |
| Feb 01 2025 | US$5m | US$1m | -US$11m |
| Nov 02 2024 | n/a | n/a | -US$2m |
| Aug 03 2024 | n/a | n/a | -US$5m |
| May 04 2024 | n/a | n/a | US$18m |
| Feb 03 2024 | US$6m | US$1m | US$29m |
| Oct 28 2023 | n/a | n/a | US$104m |
| Jul 29 2023 | n/a | n/a | US$139m |
| Apr 29 2023 | n/a | n/a | US$148m |
| Jan 28 2023 | US$11m | US$740k | US$163m |
Compensation vs Market: Doug's total compensation ($USD7.92M) is above average for companies of similar size in the German market ($USD961.27K).
Compensation vs Earnings: Doug's compensation has been consistent with company performance over the past year.
CEO
Doug Howe (65 yo)
Mr. Douglas M. Howe, also known as Doug, is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Designer Brands Inc since April 01, 2023. He was President of DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse since May 2022 until July 2...
Leadership Team
| Name | Position | Tenure | Compensation | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executive Chairman | 21.3yrs | US$6.41m | 24.09% € 73.9m | |
| CEO & Director | 3.2yrs | US$7.92m | 1.04% € 3.2m | |
| Vice Chairman & Chief Product Officer | less than a year | US$4.03m | 0.84% € 2.6m | |
| COO, Executive VP of Designer Brands & President of Brands | less than a year | US$2.20m | 0.12% € 362.3k | |
| CFO, Executive VP & Principal Financial Officer | less than a year | no data | no data | |
| Senior VP | no data | no data | no data | |
| Executive VP & President of Designer Brands Canada Inc. | 6.3yrs | no data | 0.070% € 213.6k | |
| EVP of Designer Brands & President of North America Retail of DSW Shoe Warehouse Inc. | 2.9yrs | US$1.69m | 0.040% € 122.2k | |
| Senior Vice President of Strategy and FP&A | no data | no data | no data |
Experienced Management: D9W's management team is considered experienced (2.7 years average tenure).
Board Members
| Name | Position | Tenure | Compensation | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executive Chairman | 21.3yrs | US$6.41m | 24.09% € 73.9m | |
| CEO & Director | 3.2yrs | US$7.92m | 1.04% € 3.2m | |
| Vice Chairman & Chief Product Officer | less than a year | US$4.03m | 0.84% € 2.6m | |
| Independent Director | 18.3yrs | US$310.00k | 0.031% € 94.2k | |
| Independent Director | 18.3yrs | US$315.00k | 0.17% € 512.6k | |
| Independent Director | 9.8yrs | US$285.00k | 0.096% € 293.7k | |
| Independent Director | 21.4yrs | US$290.00k | 0.098% € 302.2k | |
| Independent Director | 21yrs | US$310.00k | 0.050% € 154.5k | |
| Independent Director | 8.8yrs | US$315.00k | 0% € 0 | |
| Inside Director | 13.5yrs | US$255.00k | 0.64% € 2.0m | |
| Independent Director | 3.6yrs | US$255.00k | 0.23% € 720.4k | |
| Independent Director | 1.8yrs | US$290.00k | 0% € 0 |
Experienced Board: D9W's board of directors are seasoned and experienced ( 11.6 years average tenure).
Company Analysis and Financial Data Status
| Data | Last Updated (UTC time) |
|---|---|
| Company Analysis | 2026/06/11 13:38 |
| End of Day Share Price | 2026/06/11 00:00 |
| Earnings | 2026/05/02 |
| Annual Earnings | 2026/01/31 |
Data Sources
The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.
| Package | Data | Timeframe | Example US Source * |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company Financials | 10 years |
| |
| Analyst Consensus Estimates | +3 years |
|
|
| Market Prices | 30 years |
| |
| Ownership | 10 years |
| |
| Management | 10 years |
| |
| Key Developments | 10 years |
|
* Example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.
Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more.
Analysis Model and Snowflake
Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.
Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.
Industry and Sector Metrics
Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on Github.
Analyst Sources
Designer Brands Inc. is covered by 17 analysts. 2 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.
| Analyst | Institution |
|---|---|
| Camilo Lyon | Canaccord Genuity |
| Jeff Black | Citigroup Inc |
| Steven Marotta | CL King & Associates, Inc. |