David Kornberg, CEO of apparel retailer Express, has stepped down.
Kornberg has been with Express since 1999 and took on the role of CEO in January 2015 after longtime CEO Michael Weiss retired. He will remain with Express until Feb. 21. Matthew Moellering, the apparel retailer’s chief operating officer, will be interim CEO and interim president while Express searches for Kornberg’s replacement.
Under Kornberg’s leadership, Express saw third-quarter e-commerce sales for the period ending Nov. 3, 2018, increase 23% compared with the same period in the previous year, and e-commerce accounted for 29% of its total sales. It also launched a clothing rental subscription service called Express Style Trial in October, which allows shoppers to rent three items at a time for $69.95 per month with unlimited exchanges.
Express expects to report results for the fourth-quarter and full-year periods ending Feb. 2, 2019, during the week of March 11, 2019.
Express is owned by L Brands, No. 26 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000.
In other e-commerce news:
- Mike Robbins, executive vice president of private brands and supply chain at J. C. Penney Co. Inc. (No. 31), has been appointed to executive vice president, chief of stores and supply chain officer, where he will be responsible for all J. C. Penney stores and its supply chain and sourcing operations. He has been with the retailer for more than three years. Previously, he held several senior roles during his 13-year tenure at Target Corp. (No. 17). Truett Horne also has been hired as chief transformation officer at J. C. Penney. He is currently an associate principal at consulting firm McKinsey & Company. J. C. Penney is also seeking to fill roles for a chief financial officer, a chief merchant, and a chief customer officer, among others.
- LVMH-owned Sephora has named Jean-André Rougeot CEO of Sephora Americas, effective Feb. 4. Rougeot has been CEO of cosmetics retailer Benefit Cosmetics—another brand owned by LVMH, No. 131 in the Top 1000—for the last 12 years. He will take over the role Calvin McDonald vacated in August to become CEO of Lululemon Athletica Inc. (No. 90). A replacement for Benefit’s CEO has not yet been named.
- Josh Hix, CEO of meal-kit delivery company Plated, is stepping down but did not provide a reason why. Hix co-founded Plated in 2012 and Albertsons Cos. Inc. (No. 178) acquired the meal-kit company in September 2017. “We sincerely thank Josh for his dedication to Plated from its inception, and we look forward to sustaining and growing Plated in the future with their talented New York City-based team. The meal-kit industry is a dynamic and evolving space and we look forward to continuing to expand Plated,” Albertsons said in an email announcing his departure.
- Neiman Marcus Group, No. 40, has appointed Matt Marcotte as chief operating officer of Bergdorf Goodman, where he will be in charge of its overall operations. Prior to this role, Marcotte was executive vice president, head of global direct to consumer, at apparel brand Tory Burch for nearly six years. He also spent five years at Apple Inc. (No. 2) as managing director of retail for North America.
- WorkJam, which provides scheduling, communication and learning technologies for workplaces, has acquired Peerio Technologies, an employee communication software company that offers secure messaging and file sharing technology platforms, for an undisclosed amount. “With the addition of Peerio, WorkJam now provides the most secure digital workplace platform available—a platform that exceeds the most demanding security standards any enterprise could have when it comes to communicating with their workforce,” says Steven Kramer, CEO and co-founder of WorkJam.
- E-commerce tax automation software platform TaxJar has raised $60 million from Insight Venture Partners. The funding gives TaxJar the ability to expand its 60-person remote team to focus on product development and research, as well as to support the launch of its new TaxJar Plus product, designed to help its customers with more complex tax issues. The company previously raised $2 million in a Seed round led by Rincon Venture Partners and Daher Capital in 2014. “We’ll have the ability to expand our resources to continue to build the world’s best automated sales tax solution,” says Mark Faggiano, founder and CEO of TaxJar. “We’re focused on delivering even more value to the more than 15,000 small business merchants who already trust us with their compliance.”