Careers
20 December 2022
On the Move: The Honest Company, Calvin Klein name new leaders
This week's hiring roundup includes news from Edgewell Personal Care, Sephora, Stitch Fix and Weee!

This week's hiring roundup includes news from Edgewell Personal Care, Sephora, Stitch Fix and Weee!
Welcome to On the Move. Every week, The Current is rounding up the comings and goings of leaders at brands and retailers across the ecommerce, retail and CPG landscape.
This week, The Honest Company and Calvin Klein get set to head into 2023 with new leadership. Meanwhile, Ulta Beauty, Stitch Fix and Asos are adding experienced executives to their boards.
Check out the latest moves:
Carla Vernón is set to become the next CEO of The Honest Company, effective Jan. 9, 2023. The former Amazon and General Mills executive was tapped to lead the digitally native clean lifestyle brand as part of a succession plan that will see current CEO Nick Vlahos step down from day-to-day operations after nearly six years.
Vernón most recently served as VP of consumables categories at Amazon, where she helped to advance the beauty category with virtual lipstick try-on and the Holiday Beauty Haul sale event. She also served as division president for natural and organic at General Mills as Nature Valley and Lärabar found new growth.
Founded in 2012 by actress Jessica Alba, The Honest Company makes products in personal care, beauty, baby and household products.
Eva Serrano. (Courtesy photo)
Eva Serrano was appointed to the role of global brand president at Calvin Klein. Serrano joins PVH-owned Calvin Klein from Zara parent Inditex, where she held roles across multiple brands and gained experience in various disciplines including product, marketing, consumer experience and supply chain. Most recently, she was president of Inditex Greater China. Serrano is stepping into the leadership role after the August departure of Trish Donnelly, who served as CEO of PVH Americas and Calvin Klein.
Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand, announced several new executive hires. This came at the same time as the brand closed a new investment of $25 million from CAVU Consumer Partners.
Deborah Yeh was promoted to global chief purpose officer at Sephora, according to WWD. Yeh previously served as EVP, global chief purpose officer and CMO of Sephora North America. In the role, the 10-year Sephora veteran will further define the company’s purpose and corporate social responsibility priorities, then bring them to fruition. Yeh previously worked at Gap Inc. and Target.
Deborah Yeh. (Photo via Sephora)
John Burry was hired as chief merchandising officer at ethnic egrocer Weee! Burry brings grocery experience that includes more than 20 years with Tesco, where he served as director of innovation and futures. “His experience blending the capabilities of one of the world's largest retailers with his entrepreneurial mindset will be an invaluable asset as we look ahead to future growth,” said Weee! CEO Larry Liu.
Robert Schmidt was appointed to the role of chief accounting officer at Edgewell Personal Care. Previously, Schmidt held the same role at ADC Therapeutics and Newell Brands. He also held leadership roles at Tyco International and Celgene Corporation. Schmidt will be based in the consumer products company’s Shelton, Connecticut, office, reporting to CFO Dan Sullivan.
Heidi G. Petz, the president and COO of Sherwin Williams, was elected to the board of directors at Ulta Beauty. Petz joined Sherwin Williams following the acquisition of The Valspar Corporation in 2017. She previously held leadership roles at Newell Rubbermaid, Target Corporation and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, the chief marketing officer of DoorDash, is joining the board of directors at apparel service Stitch Fix. The ninth member of the Stitch Fix board, Amoo-Gottfried brings experience in brand and marketing from Bacardi and Meta, as well as work on advertising for brands such as Kellogg’s, Coca Cola and Nike. Amoo-Gottfried was also the founder of Publicis West Africa.
Wei Gao was appointed non-executive director at ecommerce fashion retailer Asos. Gao previously served as chief operating officer at events platform Hopin, and brings experience from Amazon as a VP of grocery tech, product and supply chain, as well as technical advisor to the CEO.
Still, plans to buy big-ticket items ticked up.
“Deterioration.” “Gloomy.”
Those were a couple of the words used to describe consumer confidence in May. The Conference Board reported that the index fell to a six-month low amid debt ceiling anxiety and increasing concerns about employment.
“Consumer confidence declined in May as consumers’ view of current conditions became somewhat less upbeat while their expectations remained gloomy,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics at the Conference Board, in a statement. “...While consumer confidence has fallen across all age and income categories over the past three months, May’s decline reflects a particularly notable worsening in the outlook among consumers over 55 years of age.”
The dip among those over 55 came as Congress negotiated a deal over increasing the debt ceiling that included talk of cuts to programs such as social security and Medicare. While officials reached an agreement over Memorial Day weekend, the Conference Board’s survey was fielded prior to that date.
The job picture appears to be more anecdotally cloudy, as the number of consumers reporting jobs as “plentiful” fell to four percentage points to 43.5%. The job market has been consistently robust for nearly three years, as unemployment remains near historic lows. In April, the economy added 253,000 jobs, which remained a positive sign despite being below the gains of prior months. The confidence reading comes ahead of fresh data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
Despite the declines, there were signs that consumers are not completely pulling back on big-ticket items. Plans to buy big-ticket items such as cars and appliances ticked up on a monthly basis. It’s worth watching whether this extends to providing resilience in other discretionary categories, which have seen a pullback in early 2023.
Nevertheless, the index offered another sign that the consumer mood is getting more pessimistic. It was the fourth time in five months that confidence fell. On Friday, the University of Michigan offered another with a consumer sentiment report that showed a 7% dip.
Brands and retailers must work to reach consumers that are increasingly in less of a buying mood than the month before.