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18 October 2022
On the Move: New Bonobos CEO, Hormel names head of Brand Fuel
Plus, a look at where Amazon alums are bringing their expertise, and leadership hires at KDP, Shipt and UNFI.

Plus, a look at where Amazon alums are bringing their expertise, and leadership hires at KDP, Shipt and UNFI.
Welcome to On the Move. Every week, The Current is rounding up the coming and goings of leaders at brands and retailers across the ecommerce, retail and CPG landscape.
This week, Hormel Foods named the leader of a new innovation hub, Bonobos has a new CEO and Amazon veterans joined Squarespace and Hims & Hers. Plus, new supply chain leadership is coming aboard at Keurig Dr. Pepper and UNFI.
Here are the latest arrivals and departures:
Scott Aakre was named senior vice president of Brand Fuel at Hormel Foods. The leadership promotion follows Hormel’s announcement that it would evolve its operating model and stand up Brand Fuel, a new center of excellence that serves as the hub for innovation, consumer and shopper insights, brand diagnostics and supporting technology. The center will also house the company’s digital experience group, as well as the ecommerce and digital content team. Aakre joined the company in 1990, and was appointed to his most recent role of vice president of corporate innovation and new product development in 2011. Hormel Foods is a Fortune 500 company that oversees 30 brands, including Planters, Skippy and Spam.
Scott Aakre (Courtesy of Hormel Foods)
John Hutchison was named the new CEO at Bonobos, which he called “the OG digitally native vertical brand,” WWD reported. Hutchison joined the Walmart-owned apparel brand after roles at The North Face and Nike, and was most recently the president of fitness company TRX, and led a turnaround effort there. Hutchison succeeded Micky Onvural, who left the company in January. COO/CFO David Meir Sasson had been leading the company in the interim, and is now set to depart, as well.
Alison Loehnis is set to step into the interim CEO role at Italian fashion ecommerce platform Yoox Net-a-Porter on Oct. 31. Loehnis succeeds Geoffroy Lefebvre, who is stepping down to pursue a “private equity-backed entrepreneurial career” after 11 years with Net-a-Porter owner Richemont. Loehnis currently serves as president of Net-a-Porter, Mr Porter and The Outnet. She will serve in the interim CEO role until the closing of a deal that will see Richemont sell its stake in Net-a-Porter to Farfetch and Alabbar. At that point, an external CEO will be named.
Alison Loehnis. (Courtesy of Yoox Net-a-Porter)
Anne Bramman will step down from the role of chief financial officer at Nordstrom, effective Dec. 2. Bramman became the retailer’s CFO in 2017, and CEO Erik Nordstrom said her “leadership has been vital in helping us in many areas, particularly navigating the numerous challenges of the last few years.” Michael Maher, who is SVP and chief accounting officer, will serve as CFO in the interim while the company conducts a formal search.
Nathan Gooden was named chief financial officer and treasurer of Squarespace, the website builder that offers online selling tools. Gooden most recently served as CFO of Amazon Alexa Worldwide, and has more than two decades of financial leadership experience through firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young.
Hims & Hers, the telehealth platform that provides access to treatment in areas including hair loss, dermatology and primary care, made two leadership appointments:
Masiar Tayebi was promoted to the role of EVP, chief strategy and information officer at food solutions company SpartanNash. Tayebi joined the company in April 2021 as chief strategy officer, and is now gaining the additional executive title overseeing the IT function. Tayebi previously served as Global Head of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Whirlpool Corporation, and COO of Yummly.
Masiar Tayebi. (Courtesy of SpartanNash)
Mary-Farrell Tarbox was hired as VP of physical stores and retail operations at REI Co-op. REI chief commercial officer Cameron Jones called Tarbox “a proven leader in omni-channel operations.” Tarbox previously served as a regional vice president at Bed, Bath and Beyond, overseeing 370 stores. She also held senior leadership roles at Crate & Barrel, Petsmart, Inc. and Target Corporation.
Shipt, the on-demand delivery company owned by Target, made two key executive moves:
Alia Kemet. (Courtesy of Shipt)
Keurig Dr Pepper announced a reorganization in its supply chain structure. This included the promotion of three leaders into new roles:
New tools from Adobe and Levi's generate product images in multiple variations.
An AI-generated model. (Photo courtesy of Levi's)
AI is at the top of the conversation across technology in 2023, as new models such as ChatGPT and GPT4 show how ingesting and training large amounts of data can not only help businesses find insights in what already exists, but create something new.
While there is plenty of off-hours time being devoted to experimentation with these new models, the uses of tools that bring together automation and creativity in a way that is valuable for businesses and embraced by their customers are still coming into view.
In ecommerce, the promise of AI appears to be massive. Across marketplaces, advertising and customer service, brands and retailers have seen demands for content and customer touchpoints grow exponentially. With executives constantly in search of efficiency, AI tools stand to help generate voluminous content at scale.
To be sure, it remains early days. AI has not yet arrived permanently in ecommerce workflows, and some of the tools that lead to it arriving may not use the same models that are gaining so much press today. But the teams inside brands and retailers are interested in experimenting with this technology, and pilots can offer hints at where it might be heading.
This week delivered a pair of new launches from Levi’s and Adobe that showed how new tools can help to change how product images are generated. Let's take a look:
Photoshoots featuring models wearing products in real-world settings have long been a staple of the marketing playbook in fashion. Levi’s is piloting a new approach that could bring AI into the equation.
Through a partnership with Amsterdam-based Lalaland.ai, Levi Strauss is planning to test the use of customized, AI-generated models. Designed to supplement human models, Lalaland.ai’s technology is built to help show products for a diverse range of body types, ages, size and skin tones.
Levi’s positioned this as a move to supplement human models. Typically, a product page on the Levi’s app or website only has one model. Using this technology to create multiple images can help create a way for customers to see themselves represented in the products that are shown. It can also help to increase diversity, equity and inclusion within Levi's ecommerce stores, the company said.
“While AI will likely never fully replace human models for us, we are excited for the potential capabilities this may afford us for the consumer experience,” said Dr. Amy Gershkoff Bolles, global head of digital and emerging technology strategy at Levi Strauss & Co., in a statement. “We see fashion and technology as both an art and a science, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Lalaland.ai, a company with such high-quality technology that can help us continue on our journey for a more diverse and inclusive customer experience.”
A new tool from Adobe is also aiming to automate the work of showing images in multiple variations on ecommerce stores, but this goes beyond fashion.
According to Reuters, the new tool is designed to allow ecommerce brands and retailers to create 3D images that show products from a range of categories in a variety of formats and configurations, as well as settings. It can be used for home goods, toys, furniture, apparel and more. Product images are used across a range of content, from product pages to emails to social campaigns. So the content needs for brands and retailers are voluminous. From Reuters:
But even keeping up with making renderings has created a tremendous amount of work for e-commerce companies as marketing campaigns have become more tightly targeted, said Francois Cottin, senior director of marketing for Adobe's Substance 3D business.
For example, Cottin said, a company selling a coffee machine might want to show the gadget against a different background in different countries, because German kitchens might look different from California kitchens. Most companies have to tap 3D artists to create each image.
This advance is as much about transforming the work of teams as it is about creating the variations of product images themselves. 3D models are currently used by many of the large ecommerce players, but creating them remains the work of large teams with specialty skills in visual effects. The images then head to the hands of marketers and merchandisers who find a home for them on product pages within the customer experience.
Automation can help make all of this work more efficient. Such a tool could also have a huge impact on smaller brands and retailers. If these capabilities move into wider release, a pool of content that would’ve only been available to the most-resourced companies now could be opened up for everyone to use.
While Adobe typically works with enterprises and this product is likely designed for that market segment, its release presents a question worth asking for the future: Will AI be the next ecommerce advance that further levels the playing field between storied brands and fast-rising startups?