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06 July 2022
On the Move: CEO changes at Pinterest, Bed Bath & Beyond
Plus, notable executive hires at Boosted Commerce, Madison Reed and more.

Plus, notable executive hires at Boosted Commerce, Madison Reed and more.
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 CEO transitions at Pinterest, Bed Bath & Beyond and The Very Group. Plus, Madison Reed and Rosie made key executive additions.
Check out the latest moves:
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready. (Photo via LinkedIn)
There’s a change at the top of Pinterest at a time when the social media platform is making a push in ecommerce.
Cofounder Ben Silbermann is stepping out of the CEO role, and moving into the newly-created position of executive chairman.
The CEO of the company is now Bill Ready, who previously led commerce and payments at Google and held senior leadership roles at PayPal and served as CEO of Venmo.
After building in advertising in a similar vein to many social media companies, Pinterest recently put a bigger focus on ecommerce. The company is seeking to tap its focus on discovery to inspire users to make purchases. It is making moves to add in-app shopping features, and recently acquired AI-powered fashion shopping platform The Yes, whose CEO Julie Bornstein is now leading shopping strategy at Pinterest.
“In our next chapter, we are focused on helping Pinners buy, try and act on all the great ideas they seem,” Silbermann said in a statement. “Bill is a great leader for this transition. He is a builder who deeply understands commerce and payments. And he shares our passion for creating a positive corner of the Internet.”
Bed Bath & Beyond determined it was “time for a change” in leadership after disappointing quarterly results at the home retailer.
As a result, Mark Tritton is exiting as CEO after three years, and board member Sue Gove is taking the role of interim CEO. The company retained a search firm as it seeks to hire a permanent CEO.
Bed Bath & Beyond also promoted Mara Sirhal to the role EVP and chief merchandising officer, replacing Joe Hartsig. Sirhal previously served as GM of the Harmon brand, a title which she will retain.
The moves came as the company released first quarter results showing that sales fell by 25%.
“Today's actions address company performance, the macroeconomic conditions under which we are operating, and the expectations of the Board on behalf of shareholders,” Harriet Edelman, the chair of the board, said in a statement. “We are committed to addressing the urgent issues that have been impacting sales, profitability, and cash flow generation.”
Earlier this year, Chewy founder Ryan Cohen revealed that he had a stake of nearly 10% in Bed Bath and Beyond. Putting pressure on the company to improve performance, he struck a deal with the company in March that required his firm to appoint three people to the board of directors. Gove was not among those appointed at the time.
Lionel Desclée. (Courtesy photo)
The Very Group will be transitioning CEOs this September.
Lionel Desclée, the former CEO of Walmart Japan, will take the helm at the UK and Ireland-based digital retailer, which operates Very and Littlewoods. Desclée is currently a senior advisor at McKinsey, and previously served in top roles at pet retailer Tom & Co, as well as Delhaize Group.
He will succeed current CEO Henry Birch, who has held the role for 4.5 years. Birch led the company through the pandemic, oversaw the opening of an automated fulfillment center in East Midlands, and grew Very's AI-powered chatbot for customer service.
Martin Dunstheimer. (Courtesy photo)
Boosted Commerce, an ecommerce platform that acquires third-party brands selling on Amazon and Shopify, said Martin Dunstheimer is joining the company as chief financial officer.
Having most recently served as CFO of shoe brand TOMS, Dunstheimer also brings experience from GE, NBC, Lucky Brand Jeans, 7 For All Mankind and BCBG.
“Martin’s significant financial leadership experience, particularly related to at-scale retail businesses, is just what Boosted needs as we focus on creating structure and strategy to overcome macro-economic pulls, challenges in supply chain, and cultivate exceptional data hygiene,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Boosted, in a statement. “His expertise will strengthen our executive team with the necessary competencies to continue thoughtfully deploying capital to scale our portfolio of leading consumer brands.”
Boosted has a portfolio of more than 40 brands, including FoxyBae, Luna and Asterwood Naturals.
Hair color brand Madison Reed made a series of leadership-level appointments.
The company named Brad Lande-Shannon as chief marketing officer. He brings more than two decades building brands at companies including Culture Amp, Birchbox and Accenture.
Tyler Wozny was promoted to chief digital officer. A former mobile product lead at Sephora, Wozny joined Madison Reed in 2018 and has worked on experiences ranging from a consumer mobile app to SaaS software that powers the brand’s hair color bars.
Additionally, Madison Reed appointed two new board members: Dollar Shave Club Founder Michael Dubin and Benefit Cosmetics Global Chief Marketing Officer Stephanie Davis Michelman.
Madison Reed raised $33 million earlier this year from investors including Marcy Venture Partners, which is the venture firm of hip-hop mogul Jay-Z. In March, CFO Jose Zuniga joined the brand to spearhead an omnichannel growth strategy.
Christian Chopra. (Courtesy photo)
Male grooming and wellness brand Scotch Porter named Christian Chopra as its new president, according to Global Cosmetics News. He most recently served as GM of consumer beauty at Henkel Canada Corporation, and previously served as a brand executive at L’Oréal with Lancôme Skin Care.
“As the Scotch Porter brand continues to grow, we are thrilled to welcome Christian to the team to drive and lead tactical business operations efforts that will be critical to our expansion, positioning Scotch Porter as a leader in the men’s wellness and personal care space,” said Calvin Quallis, founder and CEO of Scotch Porter.
Lori Brown. (Courtesy photo)
Grocery ecommerce platform Rosie hired Lori Brown as SVP of industry and customer development. In the role, Brown will lead growth of its ecommerce platform and retail media network.
Brown previously spent 18 years at Post Consumer Brands, having most recently served as regional VP for the West Region.
“Lori’s enthusiasm for independent grocers and wholesalers is legendary,” Rosie CEO and cofounder Nick Nickitas said in a statement. “She brings years of experience and a passion for delivering delight to shoppers, retailers, and organizations across the US.
Rosie said nearly 300 retailers are running their ecommerce or mobile service with the company's platform.
Retail media networks must drive sales incrementality, a new report from the Association of National Advertisers states.
Retail media networks are creating a new layer to the relationship between brands and retailers, and a new report indicates that brands in particular are still navigating the growing pains.
The last two years brought fast growth of retail media networks, as retailers recognized the value of providing advertising opportunities through ecommerce marketplaces that grew rapidly during the pandemic, and the value of the first-party data they possessed in a world where third-party cookies and IDFA are becoming less valuable tools. For a historically low-margin business like retail, digital advertising also presents an opportunity for a high-margin business line of 50-70%.
Brands have proven to be eager adopters as they sought new ways to reach customers in this environment, as well. According to eMarketer, ad revenue from retail media networks will reach $52 billion in 2023 and $61 billion in 2024. Over the next two years, retail media will account for one in five digital ad dollars spent by marketers. The spend is only expected to grow. According to a survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 73% of brands said they expect to be spending somewhat or significantly more on retail media in the future than they do today.
However, this proliferation has also created “more marketing decisionmaking complexity for advertisers,” ANA CEO Bob Liodice said in a new report.
The need to navigate multiple networks and still-developing tools to maximize the opportunity presented by retail media is leading to a multitude of approaches. Layer on top of that the fact that brands are both selling goods and advertising through retailers, and it’s clear the landscape is being reshaped.
A recent report from the Association of National Advertisers uncovered the areas where fault lines may emerge under the surface:
The results underscore key areas where relationships between brands and retailers can be strengthened.
Sales vs. growth. Retail media must be able to drive both conversions of a single sale in the lower funnel, and brand equity growth in the mid- to upper-funnel.
As one respondent put it, "The jury is still out on if the RMNs are truly driving sales incrementality."
This also has implications for how a brand is budgeting retail media. Some brands are shifting dollars from shopper marketing, brand marketing, and trade spending, which could put the emphasis on short-term sales. But as another respondent put it, "There is concern that while attribution shows RMNs are driving brand sales, they are not necessarily driving brand growth. This is especially concerning where incremental RMN spending is being sourced from brand building budgets."
Standard measurement. Brands want to see an improvement in transparency in measurement. They also want results to be measured in the same ways across platforms. Further, brands believe retail media networks are not fully optimized for their KPIs.
This all leaves room for retailers to show they truly understand what brands are seeking from retail media, and show how they are delivering, all while reducing complexity.
As the report put it, “The next phase of growth for RMNs and value creation for brands will be through RMNs assuming shared responsibility with advertisers for driving brand growth, and demonstrating the ability of their platforms to drive incrementality and positive ROAS for brands. In other words, the next stage of growth will be driven by results versus relationships.”