Lord & Taylor has hired Vanessa LeFebvre as its new president in an effort to “reimagine” its business model to reverse its languid performance, the retailer says. Lord & Taylor is part of department-store chain Hudson’s Bay Co., which also operates Hudson’s Bay, Saks Fifth Avenue and the Saks Off 5th and Gilt businesses and is No. 36 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000.
LeFebvre joins the retailer from Stitch Fix (No. 59), where she worked as vice president of women’s buying, focusing on data science and personalization. Prior to that, she was the senior vice president and general manager of Macy’s (No. 6) Backstage.
LeFebvre began her career at Lord & Taylor in 1999 in the executive training program and eventually rose to divisional merchandise manager. She went on to hold senior roles at TJX Cos. Inc.’s (No. 130) T.J. Maxx, as a divisional merchandise manager.
“Vanessa is a change agent with a track record of conceptualizing and building new lines of business,” said Helena Foulkes, CEO of Hudson’s Bay. “This, combined with her strong experience leading digitally focused strategies and understanding of department store retailing, makes her the right person to lead Lord & Taylor into the future.”
Meanwhile, Walmart Inc. in the coming weeks will roll out its Lord & Taylor online flagship store. The flagship shop will be featured on the recently redesigned Walmart.com and will debut with more than 125 fashion brands, including Tommy Bahama, Vince Camuto, Miss Selfridge, La La Anthony, Lucky Brand, H Halston and Effy.
“We all see a tremendous amount of opportunity [for Lord & Taylor],” says Foulkes. “The idea is to evolve Lord & Taylor for the future, that is what I was looking for in choosing the leadership.”
In other e-commerce news:
- Same-day grocery delivery service Instacart has named David Hahn as its chief product officer. Prior to this appointment, Hahn worked as chief product officer and president at crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. He also served as vice president of product management at LinkedIn for more than nine years, where he worked on enterprise products and auction-based ad systems. “Instacart is a once in a lifetime transformative company–it makes lives easier, helps bricks-and-mortar retail compete online and fundamentally changes the way people shop. I couldn’t be more excited about being part of a company that brings useful products and services to an increasingly digital world,” says Hahn.
- Customer experience management platform Sprinklr hired Grad Conn as chief experience and marketing officer. Prior to Sprinklr, Conn was general manager and chief marketing officer at Microsoft USA for 11 years. Additionally, he worked as CEO or chief marketing officer at a number of startups and began his career with Procter & Gamble, No. 664 in the Top 1000. “With his rare combination of B2B, B2C and startup skills, I can’t think of anyone better suited to help us bring the customer-first future of marketing to life for Sprinklr and our customers,” says Ragy Thomas, founder and CEO of Sprinklr.
- Snap Inc.’s chief financial officer Drew Vollero has stepped down, with Amazon.com Inc.’s vice president of physical stores Tim Stone taking his place. Stone had been with Amazon (No. 1) since 1998 in various roles, including vice president of finance and overseeing the Whole Foods integration. “I am deeply grateful for Drew and his many contributions to the growth of Snap,” CEO Evan Spiegel said. “He has done an amazing job as Snap’s first CFO, building a strong team and helping to guide us through our transition to becoming a public company.”
- Head of product management for Amazon’s Alexa Smart Home Charlie Kindel has stepped down from his role to “relax and goof off,” he says. Kindel created the Alexa Smart Home organization in 2016 and was responsible for the product management and design, engineering, operations and business development for the Alexa Smart Home. Before joining the Alexa team, Kindel built an Amazon digital wallet and mobile payment solution. “I’m going to miss the people,” Kindel said in a blog post. “The Alexa Smart Home team is an incredible team that I was blessed to have built from the ground up.”
- Bridal and special occasion retailer David’s Bridal, No. 407, appointed Scott Key as CEO after Paul Pressler stepped down. Key has been executive vice president and general manager for David’s Bridal since September 2016. Prior to the bridal retailer, Key worked in several leadership positions at clothing retailer Gap Inc. (No. 20), including as the senior vice president and brand president of Athleta Inc. “I see tremendous opportunity for David’s Bridal to continue to grow in bridal and beyond,” says Key.