Grove Collaborative hires former Unilever exec as CFO

Dive Brief:

After attracting a celebrity investor in Drew Barrymore last week, Grove Collaborative on Monday named Sergio Cervantes as its new CFO, according to a company press release.
Before joining the company, Cervantes served as CFO of Murad, a luxury skincare company that Unilever purchased in 2015. He took over as acting CEO of Murad in June 2021, according to the announcement, and has also spent time at Gillette.
With Cervantes assuming the role of CFO, co-CFOs Phil Moon and Janae De Crescenzo will step back into their previous positions as vice president of finance and chief accounting officer, respectively.

Dive Insight:

Grove Collaborative has once again added a new face to its team. The company has brought on a number of industry veterans to leadership roles in the past several months, including tapping an Amazon executive for its chief marketer in June and naming the former CEO of Burt's Bees as the chairman of its board of directors in February. Last week, Grove Collaborative announced that actress and entrepreneur Drew Barrymore would invest in the company, appear in a new campaign and serve as its first global brand and sustainability advocate.

In announcing Cervantes' hiring, Grove Collaborative touted his experience, including 18 years with Unilever and four at Gillette. After Unilever acquired Murad, Cervantes helped integrate the brand under Unilever's Beauty and Personal Care Prestige arm and streamlined the brand's operations to boost sales growth and improve profits.

Sergio Cervantes was named Grove Collaborative's CFO.

Courtesy of Grove Collaborative

"We are thrilled to welcome Sergio to the team. His extensive background in consumer products and deep finance and operational experience will be valuable assets to Grove," Stuart Landesberg, Grove's CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. "In particular, Sergio's expertise in growing distribution channels and driving profitability are core to our roadmap. I look forward to partnering with Sergio to lead our company as we continue to deliver on our mission-driven growth objectives."

Grove Collaborative has appointed Cervantes amid its efforts to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company expects to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company sometime in Q2 of this year under the ticker symbol "GROV." In the meantime, the company laid off about 17% of its corporate staffers in March and missed its target revenue for 2021 by about a million dollars.

Grove Collaborative isn't the only company in the retail space that has recently hired a seasoned chief financial officer. Over the past month or so, Walmart, Parachute and Express have each hired new CFOs with experience at companies like PayPal, TaylorMade and Big Lots.