Dive Brief:

• Glossier President and CFO Henry Davis is leaving the company, according to multiple media reports, and first noted by Business of Fashion. Davis has been at Glossier for nearly five years, according to his LinkedIn, as president and COO for just over four years and as president and CFO for just six months.
• The departure comes after Glossier this year lost its previous head of finance, Matt Weiler. Just over a year ago, former vice president and creative director Helen Steed also departed from the company, leaving CEO and founder Emily Weiss with big gaps to fill in the C-suite, according to a Women's Wear Daily report. The company is now looking for both a COO and CFO, according to that report.
• Davis wrote in a blog post on Medium Wednesday that he was leaving Glossier to take up a position as the founder of a new company, reflecting on Glossier's growth over the years and noting that the startup has now raised $86 million for its "category-defining business." Glossier did not immediately respond to Retail Dive's request for more details about the departure and any plans for a replacement.

Dive Insight:

Glossier has been on top of the beauty retail world recently. The company has put many traditional beauty retailers on notice in recent years, and an additional $52 million in venture capital funding in February bolstered confidence in the company's position in the category.

The digitally native brand is also coming off the wings of its first big investment in brick and mortar: a flagship in New York's SoHo neighborhood, which replaces the showroom that Glossier has had at the same location since November of 2017. The location is high on experience, like many of the brick-and-mortar efforts coming out of other digitally native brands, including Casper and Away.

Nevertheless, losing a key exec could cause problems for the young brand, even one that has been lauded for its disruptive influence. The retailer has been considering an IPO as well, according to Women's Wear Daily, which could move to the back burner as the company searches for new leadership for its finance department.

Overall, though, the departure seems to be an amicable one, and Davis expressed faith in the company's future in his statements, calling it a "special company," and stated support for its mission.

"Customers are more empowered than ever, not just to direct the offerings brands give them, but to be stakeholders in their very creation," Davis wrote. "I am so proud of Glossier's pioneering role in this revolution."