Darren MacDonald joins the strength training company as a retail strategist, which will herald the next steps for Tonal
Smart home gym maker Tonal has appointed a new CEO, Darren MacDonald, to replace Krystal Zell.
Prior to joining Tonal, MacDonald served as Chief Customer Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Petco, with more than 20 years of global digital strategy and business development experience. In addition to Petco, MacDonald has held senior leadership positions at Jet.com, IAC, Avery Dennison, and managed Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce entertainment business.
Zell hopes to regain his momentum
One of the few female CEOs in the fitness industry, Zell has served as CEO of Tonal since January 2023, during which time she has raised $130 million in funding for the smart home gym brand and overseen advancements in AI-driven, hyper-personalized strength training.
The Harvard Business School graduate said on her LinkedIn page that she was leaving because she needed to recharge, spend more time with her family, and reduce her commutes to San Francisco. She called the transition “bittersweet” and noted that it was a difficult decision given the “intensive” work of the past few years.
“Together we changed tone “Our goal is to be a company that can sustainably grow and serve our loyal members over the long term,” Zell wrote. “Even in a post-pandemic world, we are growing our membership, doing well financially, and driving incredible innovation, especially in hardware and AI.”
She added that she was excited to have MacDonal as Tonal’s new CEO, writing: “I am certain that his skills and experience are exactly what Tonal needs for the future.”
McDonald’s Members First
In a statement about his new role as Tonal CEO, McDonald said he’s a big fan of the smart home gym maker and wrote on his LinkedIn page that he was a member of Tonal before joining the team.
“I’m thrilled to be working with such an amazing team at Tonal,” he said. “We were the first to offer truly personalized strength training technology, we set the bar high, and I’m eager to push our product further. Together, we’ll continue to deliver the best strength training experience possible to people around the world.”
Jack Lazar, chairman of Tonal’s board of directors, praised Zell’s leadership, which he said has set the company up for continued success.
He added: “As we embark on our next chapter, we are delighted to welcome Darren, who brings extensive retail strategy and consumer-driven growth experience that we believe will drive Tonal to further success in market share, member loyalty and product development.”
Tonal takes action
Earlier this year, Tonal announced a major partnership with Spartan Race, which will make Tonal a required obstacle at all stadium events, where competitors must complete the spinning cutter. This move will bring Tonal to over 50,000 competitors to experience the device first-hand.
Jonathan Shottan, Tonal’s chief product and content officer, shared with Athletech News this spring how transformative the strength training hardware brand has been for its members, with data showing that Tonal members Strength increased by more than 70% The brand has seen great success in its first year in home devices, and he said it is looking to strengthen its retail business – an area where McDonald has extensive experience.
Data > Connected
After the epidemic, home fitness sometimes fell into trouble. Although Tonal has been called the “Peloton of weightlifting”, Zell has been working hard to distinguish Tonal from other fitness brands and is even reluctant to use the label of “connected fitness”.
“That’s not fundamentally what Tonal is trying to do,” Zell told ATN last fall, highlighting the data Tonal has accumulated to drive the user experience. “We’re not trying to create this connected classroom experience. Instead, we have a very different philosophy: We’re trying to bring intelligence to the market.”
Citing the strength-based data set that Tonal has accumulated on its LinkedIn page, McDonald noted that Zell has done a “tough job” and positioned Tonal for continued growth.
“I am astounded by the innovation of this product and equally impressed by how many lives it has changed,” he wrote. “People who try this product end up buying it and stick with it (with the lowest churn rate of any product in its category) because it improves their health and well-being.”
Check out ATN’s exclusive interview with Tonal coach Kendall “Woody” Wood herewhere she shares her gym bag must-haves and her favorite wellness products.
