Retail
Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company named Josh D’Amaro chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, reporting to Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. D’Amaro, who most recently served as president of Walt Disney World Resort, succeeds Chapek.
In his new role, D’Amaro will oversee Disney’s travel and leisure businesses, which include six theme park-resort destinations in the United States, Europe and Asia; a cruise line, a vacation ownership program and a guided family adventure business.
Disney’s global consumer products operations include the licensing business across toys, apparel, home goods, digital games and apps; a children’s print publisher, Disney store locations around the world and the shopDisney e-commerce platform.
Macy’s
The Macy’s Inc. board of directors appointed Felicia Williams as interim chief financial officer, effective June 1.
Williams has been senior vice president, controller and enterprise risk officer of the company since June 2016. She will succeed Paula A. Price who will depart the company on May 31.
The board also appointed Paul Griscom as interim principal accounting officer, effective June 1. Griscom has been vice president, financial reporting and accounting services since May 2019.
Williams and Griscom will each receive a monthly stipend, in addition to current salary, for the additional responsibilities during their interim tenure.
Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. announced the election of two new independent board members, Susie Coulter and James A. Goldman. In addition, James Bachmann’s term on the board of directors ended prior to the company’s annual meeting after serving for nearly 17 years.
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Abercrombie & Fitch regularly evaluates the composition of its board to ensure that its directors possess the skills, experience and perspectives needed to guide the company and help it deliver value to all stakeholders. With these changes, the company’s board will expand to 12 directors, five of whom are female. Independent directors now comprise 92 percent of the board.
Coulter is currently the CEO of Bronty Beauty LLC, a beauty company specializing in all-natural skin care products. She has previously held senior executive roles as president of Victoria’s Secret Beauty and president of Polo Ralph Lauren Retail Stores.
Goldman is currently a senior advisor at Eurazeo SE, a global investment firm. Prior to this, he was the CEO and a member of the board at Godiva Chocolatier Inc. Goldman also serves as a director at Domino’s Pizza Inc.
FabFitFun
FabFitFun announced that retail finance veteran J. Scott Di Valerio has joined the company as the first chief financial officer.
In this newly created role, Di Valerio will oversee the strategy and execution for FabFitFun’s global finance, accounting, investor relations and business operations initiatives.
He most recently served as chief operating and financial officer for Spiceworks, a marketplace that connects business technology buyers and sellers to drive growth in their organizations.
FabFitFun is a lifestyle membership whose stated mission is to deliver happiness and well-being to everyone, everywhere. Its flagship product, the FabFitFun Box, delivers a curated collection of full-size products across beauty, fashion, fitness, wellness, home, and tech each season.
Brands
Under Armour
Under Armour Inc. announced that Mohamed A. El-Erian, a board member since 2018, was appointed lead independent director of the company’s board of directors, effective upon his re-election at Under Armour’s 2020 Annual Meeting on May 27. El-Erian succeeds A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard, who has served in the lead director role since 2006.
El-Erian joined Under Armour’s board in 2018 and has served on the finance and capital planning, and audit committees. He is currently chief economic advisor at Allianz and is president-elect of Queens’ College Cambridge.
Douglas A. Coltharp will replace Krongard as chair of the audit committee. Coltharp, a board member since 2004 and longstanding audit committee member, will continue his role as chair of the finance and capital planning committee.
Keds
Bornie Del Priore was named global brand president of sneaker and women’s lifestyle brand Keds, a division of Wolverine World Wide, Inc.
Del Priore has more than two decades of global footwear industry experience and currently serves as global brand president of the Wolverine Worldwide Kids Group, a role she will continue while also serving as global brand president of Keds.
In her new dual appointment, she will report to Joelle Grunberg, a member of Wolverine Worldwide’s executive leadership team and global brand president of Sperry.
Del Priore joined Wolverine World Wide in 2017 after serving as vice president of footwear at the Tommy Bahama Group, where she helped relaunch the brand’s wholesale men’s and women’s footwear lines.
Technology
Zebra Technologies
Zebra Technologies Corp. announced its stockholders elected Linda M. Connly to the company’s board of directors. Connly replaces Andrew K. Ludwick, who is retiring from the board.
Following a long technology career at Data General, EMC and Dell/EMC, Connly currently serves as CEO of The Connly Advisory Group, which provides advisory services to diagnose sales issues and design go-to-market models.
Ludwick has served as a director of Zebra for 12 years.
Zebra empowers the front line of business in retail/e-commerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare, public sector and other industries to achieve a performance edge. With more than 10,000 partners across 100 countries, it delivers industry-tailored, end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and data to help customers make business-critical decisions.
Berkshire Grey
Berkshire Grey, a robotics and AI company developing retail, e-commerce, and logistics fulfillment automation for global companies, appointed Jessica Moran as senior vice president and general manager for third party logistics (3PL). Reporting to president and chief operating officer Steve Johnson, Moran will manage the global 3PL business unit.
Prior to joining BG, Moran held leadership positions for global organizations including Microsoft, Computer Associates, and Enterasys Networks. Most recently, for Bottomline Technologies she managed a SaaS-based B2B payment network serving over 420,000 businesses and handling over $200 billion in annual transaction volume.
Supply Chain
GS1 US
GS1 US appointed John S. Phillips, senior vice president of customer supply chain and go-to-market at PepsiCo Inc.; Randall J. Skoda, president and CEO of Topco Associates, and Steve Breen, senior vice president of enterprise inventory optimization at Walmart, to its board of governors.
Additionally, long-standing GS1 US board of governor members John Inwright, president and CEO of Wendy’s Quality Supply Chain Co-op Inc., and Dr. Susan D. Moffatt-Bruce, CEO of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada, were appointed chair and vice chair, respectively.
The executives join a diverse board representing a cross-section of industries, including apparel, general merchandise, retail grocery, foodservice and healthcare. They will help guide the GS1 US strategy to drive adoption and use of GS1 Standards that support supply chain visibility, product traceability, e-commerce operations, regulatory requirements and increased consumer demand for product information.
Textiles
MycoWorks
MycoWorks, the mycelium biomaterials company that produces Reishi, a non-animal, non-plastic option for fine alternative leather, announced the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
The SAB assembles five scientists who are leaders in the field of mushroom science and research (mycology) to guide the advancement of MycoWorks’ current and future mycelium materials.
MycoWorks co-founder and chief financial officer Philip Ross spearheaded the recruitment of the SAB, seeking leading experts in the molecular and genomic characterization of mycelium growth characteristics, bioinformatics and optimization of protein and metabolite formation. Initially, the SAB will advise on efforts to develop a custom Reishi strain with enhanced mechanical properties, custom surface qualities and a faster growth cycle. Long-term endeavors will apply MycoWorks’ process to create new materials for industrial applications beyond the current use of Reishi Fine Mycelium for fashion and footwear.
The MycoWorks SAB is comprised of Ross as chair, Leopoldo Naranjo Briceño, professor and researcher in molecular biology and biotechnology at the Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, and co-director of the Applied Microbiology Group, and head of the Microbial Biotechnology Lab; N. Louise Glass, director of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor in the Plant and Microbial Biology Department at UC Berkeley; David Hibbett, professor of biology at Clark University; Vera Meyer, professor of applied and molecular microbiology at Technische Universität, Berlin, and Jonathan S. Schilling, associate professor of plant and microbial biology and director of the Itasca Biological Station & Laboratories at the University of Minnesota.