Retail
Athleta
Gap Inc. appointed Mary Beth Laughton as president and CEO of Athleta. Laughton will begin her new role in late October and will serve on Gap Inc.’s senior leadership team, reporting to president and CEO Art Peck.
Laughton most recently was executive vice president of omni retail for Sephora U.S., leading both the e-commerce and stores channels. She has overseen areas including digital marketing and merchandising, store operations and field, omnichannel experience and digital innovation. Prior to that, Laughton spent nine years at Nike in a variety of roles, including general manager of e-commerce for Europe and the director of e-commerce for Nike subsidiaries, including Cole Haan, Converse and Hurley.
A certified B Corporation, Athleta creates versatile premium performance apparel designed by women athletes to inspire a community of active, confident women and girls to reach their limitless potential. Athleta apparel is available at its 170 stores across the country, through a branded catalog and at Athleta.com.
Express
Express Inc. promoted Mathew Moellering to president and chief operating officer (COO) of Express.
Moellering joined Express in 2006 and has served as executive vice president (EVP) and COO since September 2011. He also served as interim president and interim CEO of Express from January to June 2019. Moellering also serves on the board of directors of privately held L.L. Bean Inc.
eBay
EBay Inc. announced that the company’s board of directors has appointed Scott Schenkel, most recently eBay’s senior vice president (SVP) and chief financial officer (CFO), as interim CEO.
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The appointment follows Devin Wenig stepping down as president and CEO, and as a director of the company. The eBay Board will undertake a search to identify the next CEO, and will consider internal and external candidates.
The company also announced that Andy Cring, its vice president (VP) of global financial planning and analysis, has been appointed to serve as interim CFO.
Schenkel has served as SVP and CFO of eBay Inc. since 2015, leading finance, analytics and information technology, as well as eBay’s classifieds business unit. Previously, he spent six years as SVP and CFO of eBay Marketplace, where he was responsible for overseeing finance, analytics, strategy and innovation across the business.
Cring has served as vice president of global financial planning and analysis at eBay Inc. since joining the company in 2013. He has been responsible on a global basis for financial oversight of all functions at eBay, including technology, marketing and operations.
EBay Inc. operates the Marketplace, StubHub and Classifieds platforms globally, enabling $95 billion of gross merchandise volume in 2018.
Hibbett Sports
Hibbett Sports Inc. announced that Scott R. Humphrey is joining the company as interim CFO effective Sept. 29, replacing Christine Skold, who fulfilled her contract term and has accepted a full-time permanent position in Nashville.
Humphrey most recently served as CFO for Ciner Resources LP, a publicly traded mining company located in Atlanta. He will oversee the company’s financial operations through the fiscal year ending Feb. 1, as well as assist with the transition when a full-time replacement has been named. The board of directors is continuing its search for a permanent CFO.
Hibbett, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., is an athletic-inspired fashion retailer with approximately 1,100 stores under the Hibbett Sports and City Gear banners, primarily located in small and mid-sized communities. It also operates the hibbett.com and citygear.com e-commerce websites.
Liquid Omnicommerce
Liquid Omnicommerce, an end-to-end retail consultancy, has strengthened its management team with the appointment of Richard Nicoll as its new chief commerce officer and managing director.
Nicoll joins Liquid from Publicis Communications in Asia, where he was chief shopper marketing officer. He has also held leadership roles at Saatchi & Saatchi in London and Hong Kong.
Nicoll will play a strategic role in driving the growth of Liquid as an omnicommerce enterprise in the region, with a focus on enhancing the agency offering, structuring agency capability and striking the right balance and focus between online and offline shopper marketing. He will also focus on building partnerships to leverage data to create effective in-store shopper strategies for clients, as well as meeting the aspirations of shoppers for more personal and tailored experiences.
Since its launch two years ago in Dubai, Liquid Omnicommerce has grown to an agency of over 40 specialists and evolved as a prime driver of omni commerce in the region.
Textiles
Kraig Biocraft Laboratories
Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc., a developer of spider silk-based fibers, said with the appointment of Greg Scheessele as the third and final independent board member, it has completed the selection of independent members for its board of directors.
Scheessele currently serves as CEO of Gerette LLC and has held several top executive roles in global manufacturing firms, including TMD Americas, Pall Corp., Gelman Sciences and General Motors Powertrain Division. His term will begin during the fourth quarter and he will serve on the audit and compensation committees.
Over the past two weeks, the company announced the selections of three new independent directors scheduled to join the company’s board during the fourth quarter, including Anurag Gupta and Julie Bishop. Also appointed this week, Bishop currently serves as the senior director of global accounting at Verizon Media and has held senior accounting positions at Yahoo and HD Waterworks. Her term will begin during the fourth quarter and she will serve on the audit and compensation committees. The company anticipates selecting one additional inside director to round out its board.
Once these three new independent directors are formally seated during the fourth quarter, the company will be governed by a majority of independent directors, which is a key requirement for listing on a national exchange.
Oros
Oros, the outerwear brand behind Solarcore insulation that incorporates aerogel, added roles to its product development team as it finalized its move into the startup’s new Portland, Ore.-based headquarters.
Jeff Nash is leading product innovation at Oros as chief technology officer and VP of product. Nash has 20 years of experience in technical material innovation with industry-leading brands including The North Face and Black Diamond Equipment.
Alistair Hather joined Oros as design director. Hather comes to the company with 10 years of design experience from technical outdoor apparel to athlete-driven performance sportswear, most recently as senior designer with the Futures team at Adidas. Hather reports directly to Nash within the product team.
Jessie Busse was appointed product developer to manage the evolving apparel collection for Fall 2020 and beyond. Busse comes from Columbia Sportswear and brings a special knowledge of technical design and maker capability to the OROS team. Busse reports directly to Nash in this newly added role.
Established in 2015, Oros was born out of the desire to create pioneering apparel and technology. It developed a breathable and durable material known as Solarcore integrating aerogel that provides extreme insulation for outdoor apparel.
Technology
Locus Robotics
Locus Robotics, a specialist in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, announced that Denis Niezgoda joined the Locus team as director of business development, European Union (EU), to lead Locus’s European operations and initiatives.
Before joining Locus, Niezgoda served as robotics accelerator lead at DHL Customer Solutions and Innovation, responsible for identifying and implementing new technologies to drive innovation within DHL.
In his new role, Niezgoda will continue to develop the Locus portfolio within the EU market, while also expanding and developing the company’s existing customer initiatives. Locus currently has the first three EU customer deployments underway with top retail/e-tail, third party logistics (3PL), and industrial specialty customers, including a global pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution network and a global sports apparel manufacturer.
Locus Robotics’ multi-bot solution incorporates powerful and intelligent autonomous mobile robots that operate collaboratively with human workers to dramatically improve piece-handling productivity, with less labor compared to traditional picking systems.