Few executives walk away from running a multibillion-dollar public company only to take a smaller, private one a year later. Michael Polk Newell Brands did exactly that, and his reasoning offers a window into why some leaders prefer working outside the public spotlight.
From Newell Brands to Retirement, and Back
Michael Polk left Newell Brands in 2019 after helping grow the company’s enterprise value from roughly five billion dollars to more than fifteen billion during his tenure. Retirement, though, proved short-lived. In 2020, right as the pandemic began upending businesses everywhere, he agreed to lead Implus, a portfolio company under Berkshire Partners focused on fitness and active lifestyle products across sixteen brands.
Building Something From the Ground Up
The timing could hardly have been more difficult, yet Michael Polk used the disruption to rework how Implus operated, strengthen its finances and set it up for steadier growth ahead. He describes the experience as something of a homecoming, a return to the marketing and sales instincts he relied on earlier in his career, paired now with the responsibilities of running the whole company.
Unlike his years at Newell Brands, where his focus sat mostly on high-level resource decisions, Polk now works directly with his team on the ground. He credits that closeness with helping Implus adapt more quickly than a larger, more layered organization could.
Michael Polk’s move from a household-name public company to a private fitness brand may look unconventional on paper, but he frames it as the natural next step for someone who wanted to stay closer to the actual business of building things. Running Implus through a global health crisis was hardly an easy assignment, yet Polk has described the period as one of the more satisfying stretches of his career. He talks about the company’s growth ambitions with the same enthusiasm he once reserved for turning around one of the country’s best-known consumer brands, only now the feedback loop between decision and result is far shorter, and the sixteen brands under the Implus umbrella give him plenty of room to keep testing that approach. Read this article for more information.
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