Tapestry Inc., which owns such luxury accessory brands as Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, appointed Jide Zeitlin, the company’s chairman of the board, to CEO.
Zeitlin will remain on the board as chairman, where he has served for more than 10 years. His goal as CEO will be to create long-term sustainable growth, the company says.
Zeitlin spent the first 20 years of his career at Goldman Sachs, where he held a number of senior management positions, including global chief operating officer of its investment banking businesses.
In addition to Zeitlin’s appointment, Tapestry named Susan Kropf, a current member of the Tapestry board, as its lead independent director. “The board remains committed to Tapestry’s multi-brand model, while recognizing the need to sharpen our focus on execution,” Kropf says. “Given the continued strength and momentum at Coach—the largest brand at Tapestry—our top priority remains driving significantly improved performance at our acquired brands.”
“Together, with a talented management team that combines long-tenured executives with new leaders who bring fresh perspectives, we will act with urgency to drive sustainable organic growth,” Zeitlin says.
Tapestry had 14.0% online sales growth in 2018 over 2017, according to Internet Retailer data on Top500Guide.com. The luxury merchant is No. 194 in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000.
In other ecommerce news:
- Under Armour Inc. (No. 102) appointed Stephanie Pugliese as president, North America. She most recently served as president and CEO of workwear apparel retailer Duluth Trading Company (No. 180) and, prior to that, she was vice president of women’s and men’s merchandising at apparel retailer Lands’ End (No. 59). “Our strategy in North America continues to be centered on three main elements: a focus on premium, full price distribution to protect the Under Armour brand; deepening the connection with our consumers; and an unrelenting prioritization around operational excellence,” said Under Armour president and chief operating officer Patrik Frisk.
- Adam Orvos, who has been chief financial officer at Neiman Marcus (No. 50) since April 2018, has stepped down from the role to pursue a job with another company. The luxury retailer did not disclose where he was headed. Orvos will remain with Neiman Marcus until Oct. 11 to aid in the transition with his successor, who has yet to be named.
- Stéphane Rinderknech was appointed president and CEO of L’Oréal USA (No. 95) executive vice president North America and as a member of L’Oréal S.A.’s executive committee, effective Oct. 1. He succeeds Frédéric Rozé. Rinderknech has been with the company since 2001 and has held such roles as general manager of Lancôme in Japan, general manager of luxury in Korea, head of L’Oréal China’s luxury division and subsequently of L’Oréal China’s consumer products division. He was appointed CEO of L’Oréal China in 2016.
- Online marketplace for apparel and home goods Poshmark appointed Jenny Ming, former CEO and president of Charlotte Russe, to its board of directors. Besides her nine years of experience at Charlotte Russe, Ming has held leadership positions at Gap Inc. (No. 28) and Barneys New York Inc.(No. 196). Poshmark is No. 33 in the ranking of Internet Retailer Online Marketplaces.
- United Parcel Service Inc. named a longtime PepsiCo Inc. veteran as chief financial officer. Brian Newman will take the reins as chief financial officer on Sept. 16, UPS said in a statement. Richard Peretz, who is retiring, will stay on through December “to ensure a smooth transition period,” the shipping company said. Newman brings a range of international experience, having worked in Asia, Europe and the U.S. during a 26-year career at PepsiCo. He was recently in charge of finance and operations across Latin America at the maker of soft drinks and snacks. Before joining Pepsico, Newman was an investment banker.
- Kurt Zumwalt, Amazon.com Inc.’s (No. 1 in the Top 1000) global treasurer of 15 years who helped the ecommerce giant manage investments and debt financings, has left his position. Zumwalt recently updated his LinkedIn profile to say that he left this month, but he did not disclose why he left or where he is heading.
- Product reviews platform Bazaarvoice Inc. acquired Influenster, a product discovery and reviews platform, for an undisclosed amount. The co-founders of Influenster, Aydin Acar and Elizabeth Scherle, will retain responsibility for operations at Influenster. “The decision to join forces with Influenster underscores Bazaarvoice’s commitment to connecting brands with consumers and consumers with one another through user-generated content,” said Joe Davis, CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Influenster’s product sampling and review generation offerings further strengthen our core product ratings and reviews solutions, and their hyper-targeting and gamification capabilities will allow us to better support our customers’ broader marketing initiatives.”
- Cloud provider Bloomreach hired Brian Walker as chief strategy officer to assist the company’s marketing team and develop product strategies. Prior to Bloomreach, Walker has held a range of roles, such as chief strategy officer at content management platform provider SAP Hybris and vice president and principal analyst focused on commerce technology at research firm Forrester Research.
