President, zulily; Chief Merchandising and Interactive
Officer, Qurate Retail Group; President, Qurate Retail Group
International; and President, Frontgate to Help Drive 'Third Way to
Shop'
WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania,
May 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Today, Qurate Retail, Inc., President and CEO Mike George announced several executive
leadership appointments for Qurate Retail Group, as the Group looks
to further its position as one of the largest digital retailers in
the world.
- Jeff Yurcisin has been named
President of zulily, LLC, effective August
15, 2018.
- Mary Campbell has been named
Chief Merchandising and Interactive Officer, Qurate Retail Group,
effective immediately.
- Aidan O'Meara has been named
President, Qurate Retail Group International, effective
July 2, 2018.
- Tom Bazzone has been named
President, Frontgate.
Through its eight retail brands – QVC, HSN, zulily, Ballard
Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill,
Grandin Road and Improvements – Qurate Retail Group provides
customers with curated collections of unique products, made
personal and relevant by the power of storytelling across
television, digital, social and print platforms.
"We've built our businesses and customer loyalty by always
staying a step ahead and giving customers a different experience -
a third way to shop – beyond e-commerce and traditional bricks and
mortar," said George. "Jeff, Mary, Aidan and Tom are strong,
pioneering leaders who will build on that legacy, helping us to
define a new generation of shopping that combines commerce,
content, and multi-platform engagement to create experiences that
truly engage, and bring joy, inspiration and humanity back to
shopping for millions of shoppers worldwide."
Jeff Yurcisin Named President, zulily
As President of zulily, Yurcisin will oversee one of the
nation's leading online retailers and its 3,200 team members, who
bring thousands of special finds to its customers every day via its
highly personalized digital experience. Yurcisin and his zulily
team will play an integral role in the continued evolution of
Qurate Retail Group and its focus on delivering a differentiated
shopping experience for consumers. Yurcisin will be based in
Seattle.
Yurcisin joins Qurate Retail Group after 13 years with Amazon,
where he led several large businesses with a track record of rapid
innovation and strong sales growth. Most recently, as Vice
President leading Amazon Fashion's Private Brands business, he
helped launch dozens of brands across women's, men's and children's
categories, including Amazon Essentials (basics for men and women),
Lark & Ro (women's everyday essentials), Core 10 (women's
premium activewear), and Spotted Zebra (playful apparel for kids)
and others. Previously, as Vice President of Amazon Fashion, he led
teams across men's, women's and kids/baby categories.
Yurcisin is an experienced executive and served as General
Manager/CEO of Shopbop, a wholly owned, independently operated
subsidiary of Amazon. Yurcisin succeeded the founder and led
Shopbop's rapid expansion in the U.S. and internationally. Among
other accomplishments, he led new site re-designs, launched a men's
business, and began offering free 3-day shipping worldwide. During
his leadership, Shopbop emerged as one of the leading fashion
boutiques worldwide.
"Jeff has a strong track record of inspiring his teams to defy
convention, find new ways to delight customers and drive growth,"
said George. "With his passion for innovation in retail, Jeff is an
ideal executive to build on zulily's momentum. In addition, Jeff
will help us nurture and leverage the entrepreneurial spirit that
makes zulily such an asset for the entire Qurate Retail Group."
Lori Twomey, who is currently
serving as interim President of zulily, will continue as Chief
Merchant, zulily, after Jeff's arrival in August. Lori has served
as Chief Merchant since she joined zulily in November 2009, prior to the launch of
zulily.com.
"I would like to thank Lori for serving as interim President, in
addition to her responsibilities as Chief Merchant, as she and the
zulily leadership team continued to drive the business forward and
grow by 17% during Q1," said George. "Lori's willingness to step up
has also allowed zulily co-founder Darrell
Cavens to immediately launch our New Ventures division,
which is focused on supporting our growth by imagining and
developing new forms of discovery-based shopping."
Mary Campbell Named Chief Merchandising and Interactive
Officer, Qurate Retail Group
As Chief Merchandising and Interactive Officer, Campbell
oversees Qurate Retail Group's product leadership, platform
evolution and consumer marketing agenda, curating exclusive
assortments of compelling brands and products, and bringing them to
life in highly engaging ways across the Group's television
networks, ecommerce sites, social pages, mobile apps, print
catalogs and in-store destinations.
This new team's shared purpose is to drive product leadership
across the Group's dynamic, ever-evolving, ever-expanding live
platforms and customer touchpoints. To do this, Global
Merchandising, the QVC US buying teams and the Interactive Commerce
Experiences team will come together to drive growth and innovation
and provide additional support to the buying teams within HSN and
zulily.
The new team reflects Qurate Retail Group's evolution to scale
strategies and resources across its brands and its unique position
in bringing together retail, media and social to create shopping
experiences that focus on engagement and long-term customer
relationships.
"Mary's expanded role is all about unifying our product and
platform teams into one Qurate Retail Group team – to drive growth
and enhance customer and brand loyalty – while continuing our
purpose to bring the world's most engaging shopping experience to
life across our interactive platforms," said George. "Every day,
our talented team members are finding new ways to work together
across QVC, HSN, zulily and our Cornerstone brands to deliver a
differentiated experience to our customers."
During her over 20 years with QVC, Inc., Campbell has held
various executive leadership positions across the Merchandising,
Planning and Commerce Platforms functions. Most recently, she
served as Chief Interactive Experience Officer, Qurate Retail
Group.
"Mary is a dynamic leader with a long history of creating
innovative organizations and leading them to extraordinary
results," said George. "During the six years when Mary led Commerce
Platforms, QVC achieved our largest television reach, ecommerce and
mobile penetration, and customer base ever. She brings more
than 20 years of merchandising experience to her new role,
including her success identifying and attracting several strategic
brands and concepts to QVC."
Aidan O'Meara Named President, Qurate Retail Group
International
O'Meara will be responsible for driving growth, team member
engagement and innovation at our retail operations outside of the
U.S., which bring the QVC shopping experience to customers in
Japan, UK & Ireland, Germany & Austria, Italy, France, and QVC's joint venture in
China. O'Meara will also explore
opportunities to expand Qurate Retail Group's presence into new
markets and new shopping models, in partnership with Darrell Cavens, President, New Ventures.
O'Meara brings over 30 years of experience in international
consumer-focused businesses, including 25 years with VF
Corporation. Most recently, as Group President, International at VF
Corp, he led 12,000 team members across all geographies outside the
Americas (Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia) to record performance in 2017, making
International VF Corp's fastest-growing region. In this role,
O'Meara oversaw the development of a broad portfolio of brands,
including Lee, Wrangler, The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Eastpak,
and Kipling, among others. He served on VF Corp's executive
leadership team and helped develop the company's new 5-year
strategic growth plan.
Previously, O'Meara was President, Asia Pacific, where he led dramatic growth in
VF Corp's brand portfolio (including Lee, The North Face, Vans,
Timberland and Kipling) across this region and turned China into VF Corp's second-largest market
globally. During this time, he oversaw the development of a large,
direct-to-consumer business (with high ecommerce penetration and
over 600 owned stores), multiple transformation initiatives, and
the establishment of a product localization capability. In
addition, O'Meara pioneered the flow of talent between VF Corp's
businesses globally. Across his career, O'Meara has run businesses
in Ireland, the UK, Scandinavia,
EMEA, Asia and the U.S.
"Aidan combines a low-ego, highly collaborative leadership style
with a relentless drive to succeed and a nuanced understanding of
how to build and rebuild complex, multi-channel businesses across
multiple cultures," said George. "Throughout his career, he has led
high-performing teams to strong growth through product innovation,
channel expansion, and disruptive digital technology and business
models. His guidance will help our teams build on their momentum in
Europe and Asia."
Tom Bazzone Named President, Frontgate
Bazzone will lead our Frontgate team as they drive growth,
innovation and customer loyalty. Bazzone and his team will work
together to provide customers with beautifully thoughtful, timeless
home furnishings and products that instill life into extraordinary
spaces and hold long-term value. Bazzone will report to
Claire Spofford, President,
Cornerstone, and will be based in West Chester Township, Ohio.
Bazzone is a seasoned multi-channel retail executive, with deep
experience in the furniture, home, gift and craft industry.
He joins Qurate Retail Group from TMB Group, a consulting firm he
founded in 2011 to advise specialty retailers, their owners, and
prospective investors on all aspects of retail. Through TMB Group,
Bazzone has leveraged his experience, perspective and relationships
to help multiple clients – from startups to $20 billion companies, in diverse categories –
launch or expand in hyper-competitive retail
spaces.
Prior to TMB Group, Bazzone held a variety of operations and
merchandising leadership roles at Arhaus Furniture, Michaels
Stores, Restoration Hardware, RedEnvelope, Williams-Sonoma and
Grossman's. He also owned and ran Green Living, Dallas's premier resource of earth friendly
goods for the home.
"Tom has an entrepreneurial style and a track record of building
successful retail brands, building 'businesses within businesses'
and launching innovative and profitable merchandising initiatives,"
said Spofford. "He's a passionate and engaging leader and
change agent, who can synthesize situations quickly and put plans
into action."
About Qurate Retail Group
Qurate Retail Group
comprises eight leading retail brands — QVC, HSN, zulily, Ballard
Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill,
Grandin Road and Improvements — all dedicated to providing a 'third
way to shop,' beyond transactional ecommerce or traditional
brick-and-mortar stores. Globally, Qurate Retail Group is #1 in
video commerce, reaching approximately 370 million homes worldwide
via 16 television networks and multiple ecommerce sites, social
pages, mobile apps, print catalogs, and in-store destinations.
Qurate Retail Group is #3 in ecommerce in North America and #3 in mobile commerce in the
US (according to Internet Retailer). Qurate Retail Group combines
the best of retail, media and social to curate products,
experiences, conversations and communities for millions of highly
discerning shoppers -- bringing joy, inspiration and humanity to
shopping. Qurate Retail Group also curates large audiences, across
multiple platforms, for thousands of brand vendors. Headquartered
in West Chester, Pa., Qurate
Retail Group has 27,000 team members in the US, the UK,
Germany, Japan, Italy,
France, Poland and China. For more information, visit
www.qurateretailgroup.com.
Qurate Retail, Inc. (NASDAQ: QRTEA, QRTEB) includes the Qurate
Retail Group portfolio of brands as well as other minority
investments.