Dive Brief:
- Neiman Marcus Group announced Friday it hired Amanda Martin to serve as its senior vice president and chief supply chain officer. The company also promoted Vijay Karthik to become its senior vice president and chief technology officer.
- Martin will oversee the company's supply chain operations, photo studio and customer service departments. Karthik will manage the company's end-to-end customer-facing IT development and structure, cloud platforms, omnichannel engineering and operations, according to a company press release.
- The company also announced plans to invest more than $90 million into its systems and distribution facilities and $200 million in technology for priorities like the company's Connect platform, the acquisition of Stylyze and new digital labs.
Dive Insight:
Neiman Marcus has been revamping its e-commerce strategy as it changes its leadership. Katie Mullen, Neiman Marcus' former chief digital officer, departed the company a year ago. At that time, Bob Kupbens, formerly of Apple and eBay, became Neiman's chief product and technology officer.
"We are fortunate to have such strong talent at our company that we are able to develop and promote to lead all of the critical growth work we are executing," Geoffroy van Raemdonck, CEO of Neiman Marcus Group, said in a statement regarding the company's leadership changes and investment plans. "I am confident in these leaders' ability to drive results, the NMG Way, that ladder up to the substantial investments we are making in the business over the next three years."
As its executive team shifted, Neiman Marcus spent last year balancing its finances and figuring out its digital direction. Last March, the company refinanced $1.1 billion in debt following its 2020 bankruptcy. A few months later, Neiman Marcus Group announced that it would invest $500 million into multiple tech and digital initiatives, including Stylyze, the cloud-based software-as-a-service startup. Though the New York Post reported that it planned to separate its e-commerce operations from its physical stores, Neiman Marcus dismissed the idea. (Saks Fifth Avenue and Hudson's Bay spun off their e-commerce operations last year.)
Neiman Marcus isn't the only major retailer shaking up its C-suite as part of a broader digital commerce shift. J.C. Penney announced earlier this month that it hired Mullen from Neiman Marcus Group to serve as its chief digital and transformation officer. The retailer also hired Sharmeelee Bala, formerly of Walmart and Gap, as its CIO.
