By Georgia Wells 

Fitbit Inc. on Wednesday named its first women to its board, part of a recent movement by tech companies to hire more women as top decision makers.

The San Francisco-based maker of fitness trackers, which are popular with women, chose Laura Alber and Glenda Flanagan as directors. Ms. Alber is the chief executive of Williams-Sonoma Inc., the kitchenware and home furnishing retailer, and Ms. Flanagan is chief financial officer of grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc.

"Having different perspectives on your team is always incredibly important, but it is one criteria of many that we took into account," said Fitbit Chief Executive and co-founder James Park.

The addition of Ms. Alber and Ms. Flanagan will expand Fitbit's board to seven from five directors. They will be outside directors.

The current board, which has been in place since before Fitbit's initial public offering last June, includes Mr. Park and Fitbit's chief technologist and co-founder Eric Friedman. There are two venture capitalists representing firms that invested in Fitbit: Jonathan Callaghan of True Ventures and Steven Murray of SoftBank Capital. The last director is Christopher Paisley, professor of accounting at Santa Clara University.

Other tech firms, such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., added women to their boards of directors following public criticism of their all-white, all-male boards. Facebook chose operating chief Sheryl Sandberg in 2012 and Twitter appointed former publishing executive Marjorie Scardino a year later.

More recently, tech firms including image-discovery site Pinterest Inc. have proactively named female board members.

Unlike most smartwatch companies, which skew toward men, Fitbit has a large percentage of female users. The new directors' experience in consumer-facing companies is relevant to Fitbit. The company is expanding its health-monitoring tools as it angles for a wellness image, a brand positioning that has contributed to Whole Foods' success.

As financial chief of Whole Foods, Ms. Flanagan helped expand the supermarket chain from six stores in the late 1980s to 450 stores. Ms. Alber, meanwhile, has led growth strategies for Williams-Sonoma.

Fitbit has faced increased competition after Apple Inc. launched its first smartwatch a year ago. Fitbit's latest launches -- priced below the $299 entry price for the Apple Watch -- have sold well, but the company has spent heavily to drive growth and future product launches.

Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 01, 2016 16:19 ET (20:19 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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