Dive Brief:
- Beyond Inc. announced Thursday it’s adding eight people to its leadership team. Four will take on C-suite positions, while the rest will step into senior vice president, vice president or director roles, the company said in a press release.
- The parent company of e-commerce retailers Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock and Zulily has added chief merchandising and chief marketing officers for its Bed Bath & Beyond banner, a chief merchandising officer for its Overstock banner and a corporate chief digital and information officer.
- Additionally, two people will assume new leadership roles at Zulily. They will serve as director of merchandising and senior vice president and general manager.
Dive Insight:
Beyond’s rise as a corporate entity resulted from Overstock’s acquisition of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. Then, Beyond acquired Zulily’s intellectual property and brand assets late last year after that company went out of business.
The company relaunched Bed Bath & Beyond as an online-only retailer last August. The company reversed plans to close Overstock and relaunched that banner in March. Beyond said it plans to bring Zulily back online too but hasn’t announced a date for that banner’s return.
Former Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson, who had led the company since 2019 and led Overstock’s acquisition of Bed Bath & Beyond, exited in November. Marcus Lemonis was appointed board executive chairman in February. Later that month, the company named Dave Nielsen CEO of Overstock and Chandra Holt as Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO.
“The most important part of building a long-term, profitable, growing business is putting the right players on the field,” Lemonis said in an announcement. “We’ve assembled a world-class team with the proper incentives and alignment that will execute the very clear go-to-market strategy around our three anchor brands.”
The new leaders are:
- Guncha Mehta is joining as chief digital and information officer. Mehta held senior leadership roles at Madison Square Garden, Avis Budget Group and The Children’s Place before joining Party City Holdings as senior vice president and chief information officer in 2021.
- Stacey Shively was named Bed Bath & Beyond’s chief merchandising officer and joins the company from The Container Store, where she was chief merchandising officer. Shively began her career at Target. She also held merchant leadership roles at J.C. Penney and Dollar Tree and worked at Bed Bath & Beyond pre-acquisition.
- Angela Minor is the new chief marketing officer for Bed Bath & Beyond. She joins the company from Conn’s HomePlus, where she was the company’s chief marketing officer. Her retail leadership experience includes working at Michael’s, Pier 1, Sears and Kmart. She started her career in consulting with McKinsey & Company.
- Deb Bollom was promoted to Overstock’s chief merchandising officer. She previously held the same role for Bed Bath & Beyond. Her prior merchandising experience includes working for at Target.
- Steph Whitacre was promoted from her previous role as vice president of merchandising to senior vice president and general manager of Zulily. Whitacre previously held leadership merchandising roles at Saks Off Fifth, Bloomingdale’s and Burberry. She started her career at Bergdorf Goodman.
- Jennifer Evans was promoted from vice president of integrated marketing to senior vice president of marketing for Beyond Inc. Her new role includes overseeing marketing for Overstock and Zulily and Beyond’s content and brand partnerships. She spent nine years at Bed Bath & Beyond pre-acquisition.
- Alexis Callahan is rejoining Beyond, Inc. as vice president of investor relations and public relations after having spearheaded the development of Overstock’s investor relations program in 2020. Callahan did similar work at Tupperware Brands and Esperion Therapeutics and spent the past 15 years in investor relations and investment banking.
- Chris Peake is joining the company as Zulily’s director of merchandising. Peake brings almost three years of experience from pre-acquisition Zulily as merchandise director. Before that, he spent 16 years at Zappos.
