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12 July 2022
On the Move: New roles for tech and sustainability in the C-suite
Check out this week's hiring news in ecommerce and consumer goods.

Check out this week's hiring news in ecommerce and consumer goods.
Welcome to On the Move. In this hiring-focused weekly feature, The Current is rounding up recent arrivals and departures at brands and retailers across the ecommerce landscape.
This week brings C-suite shakeups in retail, new leadership hires at supply chain companies and a pair of prominent new roles focused on tech and sustainability. Here's a look at this week's moves:
Jeffery Owen. (Photo via LinkedIn)
Dollar General announced a CEO transition plan on Tuesday.
Current CEO Todd Vasos will be retiring, effective Nov. 1. On that date, current Dollar General Chief Operating Officer Jeffery Owen will rise to the role of CEO.
Vasos joined Dollar General in 2008, and rose into the CEO role in 2015. During his tenure, the company said it added 7,000 stores and more than doubled its market capitalization to $58 billion.
Owen has been a Dollar General employee since 1992, and has held the role of Chief Operation Officer since 2019.
Vasos will remain with the company in a senior advisory role through April 2023, at which time he is expected to begin a two-year consulting stint with the company. Vasos will remain a member of the board of directors.
Victoria's Secret & Co. is overhauling its leadership structure in a move that will result in the reduction of 160 management roles, which is 5% of the company's headquarters.
With this reorganization, the company named the following leaders:
Grocery ecommerce platform Instacart announced a series of leadership moves on Tuesday that will expand its C-suite. Here's a look:
Sonia Syngal. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Sonia Syngal will leave the role of CEO at Gap Inc., the apparel retailer announced Monday. Effective immediately, Gap Inc. executive chairman and former Walmart International CEO Bob Martin will become interim CEO.
Gap Inc. also announced a new leader for Old Navy: Horacio “Haio” Barbeito, the former CEO of Walmart Canada, will become the CEO of the apparel brand on August 1. He succeeds Nancy Green, who left the company in April.
For the backstory, read The Current’s full brief on the news.
NIck Beighton. (Courtesy photo)
Nick Beighton, the former CEO of fast fashion leader Asos, is set to step into the CEO role at luxury online retailer Matchesfashion, according to Business of Fashion. Beighton will succeed Paolo De Cesare, who is set to depart the CEO role after less than a year. Matchesfashion was acquired in September 2017 by Apax Partners.
Duncan Angove. (Courtesy photo)
Digital supply chain and fulfillment company Blue Yonder named Duncan Angove as the company’s CEO. Bringing experience from Infor, Oracle and Retek, Angove succeeds interim CEO Mark Morgan. The appointment comes after a 2021 in which the company grew to over $1.1 billion in annual revenue, with SaaS annual recurring revenue of $475 million.
Christopher Heyn (Courtesy photo)
Custom apparel manufacturer Lion Brothers Companysaid Christopher Heyn is joining as president and CEO. Heyn brings experience as the CEO of apparel companies Southern Tide and Summit Golf Brands, as well as SVP of the NBA’s Global Merchandise Group and president of Nautica. Lion Brothers counts brands including Nike, Adidas, Hanes, Disney and Polo Ralph Lauren, as well as multiple professional sports leagues, as its partners.
Tilak Mandadi. (Courtesy photo)
CVS Health appointed Tilak Mandadi to the newly created role of executive VP and chief data, digital and technology officer. Joining from MGM Resorts International, Mandadi also brings experience from Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, and American Express. He will oversee technology strategy, as well as growth and innovation of “all digital-led, consumer-focused experiences and services,” the company said.
Video game retailer GameStop fired Chief Financial Officer Michael Recupero, and appointed Chief Accounting Officer Diana Saadeh-Jajeh to the CFO role. It’s the latest change to be made as chairman and Chewy founder Ryan Cohen spurs a turnaround effort at the video game retailer. The change in CFO role accompanied layoffs on the corporate side of the company, CNBC reported.
Anne Spangenberg. (Courtesy photo)
Deckers Brands, which owns brands including Ugg and Koolaburra, appointed Anne Spangenberg as president of fashion lifestyle. Spangenberg most recently served as chief merchant at Nike, Inc. In the new role, she will focus on product diversification, consumer adoption and franchise evolution across the company’s omnichannel marketplace.
Darryl Riley. (Courtesy photo)
Sweet snacks maker Hostess Brandspromoted Darryl Riley to become its first chief sustainability officer. Joining the company in 2016, Riley previously served as SVP of quality, food safety and R&D at the company. He also has experience at Kraft Heinz and Kellogg Company. Reporting to the company’s CEO, Riley will develop strategies to execute the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives, and educate employees on sustainability.
Global omnifulfullment platform Shipbob named Lara Morgenthaler as its new chief people officer. Morgenthaler brings experience in human resources at Newell Rubbermaid, Amazon and Epic Games. Eight-year-old Shipbob supports automated ecommerce fulfillment for 60 retailers, including Target, Chewy, Neiman Marcus and Macy’s.
Sandip Grewal. (Courtesy photo)
Denim and sportswear brand True Religionnamed Sandip Grewal to the newly-created role of chief financial/operating officer. Grewal was formerly the CFO of housewares supplier Bradshaw International, which sold to Arbor Investments in 2021. He was also the CFO of Dr. Fresh, which sold to High Ridge Brands Co. in 2017.
Devon Pritchard. (Courtesy photo)
Video game company Nintendo of America promoted Dawn Pritchard to the role of EVP of sales, marketing and communications. A 16-year veteran of Nintendo of America, Pritchard held that role on an interim basis since November 2021. She will oversee strategy and execution across the US and Canada.
This story was updated at 8 p.m. on July 12 to add news from Victoria's Secret and Nintendo of America.
The retailer's marketplace is expanding quickly.
When it comes to ecommerce growth, was the pandemic a blip or a new trendsetter?
As we move further from the height of COVID-related closures, it’s a question that will start to be answered through the lens of history.
So far, the narrative of ecommerce growth in the U.S. from 2019-2022 has gone like this: Ecommerce’s share of overall retail saw a huge spike at the height of the pandemic in 2020-21, when goods in general were in demand and online shopping was necessary to preserve health and safety. Experts looked out and saw a permanent exponential change in the penetration of ecommerce as a share of retail that would last beyond the pandemic. Then, in 2022, everyone went back to stores and the trendline came back to 2019 levels. Growth was no longer exponential. There was still growth, but it was not happening as fast as during the pandemic period.
With this in mind, it’s worth pointing out that 2023 is the first year that there likely won’t be a pandemic-influenced swing to influence ecommerce growth. It is also a year where demand has suffered challenges amid inflation and interest rate hikes.
So as we seek to determine the importance of ecommerce to overall retail, it’s worth it to continue taking a close look at what growth trends retailers are seeing now, whether ecommerce is remaining resilient amid consumer pullback and how retailers are preparing for the future.
The latest example arrived this week from Macy’s. It’s a fitting one for the times. Overall, Macy’s is seeing a slowdown as consumers pull back on discretionary purchases, with sales declining 7% in the first quarter versus the same quarter of 2022. Digital sales were down 8%.
Macy’s is particularly susceptible to the macroeconomic headwinds that many brands and retailers are facing, as spending among the middle-income consumers it counts as a primary customer base is particularly softening, said GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders.
But while ecommerce is slowing overall, the importance it gained to Macy’s business during the pandemic is remaining in place.
In 2019, ecommerce made up 25% of Macy’s revenue, CEO Jeff Gennette told analysts on the company’s earnings call. That jumped to a high of 44% in 2020. By 2022, digital reached 33% of sales after the pandemic boom. In the first quarter of 2023, it remained at 33%. So, while the trend line dipped after shoppers returned to stores, ecommerce share still settled in at a higher post-lockdown point than it was before the pandemic.
This came in a quarter in which traffic was “relatively good” across both online and in-store, Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said. It was “flattish” online, and slightly up in stores.
“We do expect that this is the reset year with the penetration between them,” Gennette said. “But we do expect more aggressive growth in digital in the future versus stores as we think about '24 and beyond. And that's going to be foisted by a lot of ideas and strategies.
Over the last year, the retailer has made investments in boosting ecommerce, even as shoppers returned to stores. In a bid to boost the assortment of goods available online, Macy’s launched a marketplace in September 2022 that welcomes goods from third-party sellers.
The marketplace had an “outstanding” first quarter, said Macy’s President Tony Spring, who is poised to succeed Gennette as CEO next year. Gross merchandise value increased over 50% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, while the average order value and units per order for marketplace customers was 50% above those not shopping at the marketplace.
Macy’s is continuing to build the marketplace even as it racks up sales. The retailer added 450 brands, ending the quarter with 950 brands.
This is helping to draw in new customers, as well as younger existing customers who are buying more items, resulting in increased basket size.
“We're very excited as to how marketplace is really attracting the Gen Z customer, particularly in categories where it was not economically feasible for us to carry in the past,” Gennette said.
In the end, Gennette said a strong digital and social presence is key to attracting younger consumers. That's a different type of shopper than other age groups.
“We know the younger customer starts first online,” Gennette said. That behavior will still be in place as the generation gets older, and gains more buying power in the process.
Going forward, Macy’s is seeking to expand the model to other retail banners in its portfolio. Bloomingdale’s will open a marketplace in the early fall.
The Macy’s ecommerce trajectory isn’t that different from the wider U.S. ecommerce narrative detailed above. With one quarter of 2023 data, there is evidence that ecommerce share settled out at a higher point after the pandemic than where it started before COVID arrived. There is flattening now, but the retailer is taking it not as a sign of a slowdown, or a signal to change course. Rather, it sees changing consumer behavior as a reason to build for the future.