Retail
Walmart
Walmart Inc. announced that executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) Brett Biggs will begin transitioning from Walmart during this upcoming year after 22 years with the company to begin a new chapter in the for-profit and non-profit sectors.
Biggs will remain in the CFO role until a successor is named next year and then support that transition, remaining as an associate until he leaves the company on Jan. 31, 2023. As part of the transition, he will also continue representing the company as a board member on Walmart’s FinTech startup joint venture with Ribbit Capital.
The company will consider internal and external candidates before naming a successor. Biggs has served as Walmart’s executive vice president and cfo since Dec. 31, 2015.
Biggs joined Walmart in 2000 and in his role as CFO is responsible for accounting and controls, corporate strategy and development, business planning and analysis, global procurement, internal audit, treasury, tax and investor relations. Previously, he held the roles of CFO for Walmart International, Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club.
Neiman Marcus Group
Neiman Marcus Group announced three executive appointments and role expansions to support the integrated luxury retailer’s continued transformation.
Natalie Lockhart was named senior vice president (SVP) for strategy and execution, responsible for coordinating all aspects of the company’s growth roadmap. In this role, Lockhart now serves as a member of NMG’s group leadership team and leads the newly created Growth Execution Office, which coordinates the strategy and execution of the program and initiatives that support the company’s growth. This team is comprised of three functions–corporate strategy to drive analytics to support strategic decisions, execution management to lead the roll-out of this work and drive implementation across the organization, and change enablement to develop strategy and amplify key initiatives.
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Chris Demuth was elevated to SVP of people services, ESG, belonging and corporate philanthropy. In this expanded role, she will provide governance over the company’s culture alongside Eric Severson, executive vice president and chief people and belonging officer. The investments the company is making in ESG and belonging are key components of NMG|Way. NMG has partnerships with Textile Exchange, Give Back Box and FASHIONPHILE to support its increased focus on sustainable products and services. The company is also striving to advance workplace equality by aligning its practices with external standards like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which it participated in for the first time earlier this year.
To amplify the initiatives that support NMG’s growth roadmap and its NMG|Way culture, Tiffin Jernstedt was named SVP and chief communications officer. Jernstedt previously served in leadership roles at PVH, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Jernstedt will report to Geoffroy van Raemdonck, CEO of Neiman Marcus Group, and Severson and will join the organization’s group leadership team. She will be fully embedded in all aspects of the business to communicate its initiatives, engage associates, shape NMG|Way and amplify the organization’s external reputation to key stakeholders.
Neiman Marcus Group’s brands include Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus Last Call and Horchow.
Brands
Canada Goose
Canada Goose appointed Paul Cadman as president of Asia-Pacific (APAC).
In this role, he will oversee all business activities, including commercial, financial and marketing, across the APAC region, which includes Greater China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Cadman joins Canada Goose with more than 30 years of strategic luxury goods experience, having held leadership positions with Salvatore Ferragamo, Asprey & Garrard, Bvlgari and Estée Lauder. Most recently, he founded PMC Global Hong Kong Ltd., a strategic management and business consultancy focused on the luxury goods industry.
This announcement comes as Canada Goose continues to build and deepen its business across the entirety of Asia-Pacific, including its recent store openings in Harbin, Nanjing, Ningbo, Beijing, Taipei and Macau.
Canada Goose is a lifestyle brand and a manufacturer of performance luxury apparel. It also owns Baffin, a Canadian designer and manufacturer of performance outdoor and industrial footwear.
Kontoor Brands
The board of directors of Kontoor Brands Inc., a global lifestyle apparel company with a portfolio led by Wrangler and Lee, announced that Juliana Chugg will depart the Kontoor Brands board, effective Nov. 30, in order to focus on other business obligations.
Chugg, previously global core brands officer of Mattel Inc., has served on Kontoor’s board since the company’s inception in 2019. She served as chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee and as a member of the Talent and Compensation Committee.
Textiles
GOTS
Travis Wells was appointed as Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) protection officer for North America.
In this newly created position, Wells will be identifying and advising companies that are making unsubstantiated claims regarding GOTS signage. He has more than 20 years of experience advising fashion and apparel-related businesses on sustainable sourcing, product development and manufacturing in domestic and global markets.
GOTS is the stringent voluntary global standard for the entire post-harvest processing of apparel and home textiles made with certified organic fiber such as organic cotton and organic wool, and includes environmental and social criteria.
Australian Wool Innovation
Shareholders of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) have voted Georgia Hack, Jock Laurie and Don Macdonald to the board.
AWI chairman Jock Laurie said Hack’s marketing experience with major retailer David Jones will complement her fellow directors.
Laurie and Macdonald were existing directors who were seeking re-election.
Trade Shows
Juniper
Juniper announced the hiring of Ray Shikatani, a 30-year veteran of Canada’s gift and home B2B industry, as its new country manager for Canada.
This new role blends responsibilities formerly held by Ross Amyot–who retires after nearly 50 years in the industry–with new elements specific to development of omnichannel business-to-business opportunities.
As the Country Manager for Canada, Shikatani will have responsibility for navigating Juniper’s Canadian position and profile with specific responsibility for maintaining and growing Juniper software adoption, assisting in product development for the Canadian market and liaising with industry leaders in Canada.
Most recently, Shikatani served as president and partner of David Youngson and Associates, a Canadian gift sales agency and importer.
Shikatani joins Juniper just weeks before the launch of JuniperMarket. Powered by International Market Centers, the new B2B e-commerce marketplace will connect brands and sales agencies with buyers globally.
Technology
CommentSold
CommentSold, a digital commerce solution, appointed two executives to its leadership team to support the next stage of its growth.
Finn Faldi, the company’s new chief commercial officer, will oversee all go-to-market operations, including marketing, sales, partnerships, customer success, onboarding and account management, reporting directly to CEO Brandon Kruse. Additionally, Helaine de Tomasi joins as CommentSold’s new vice president of B2B Marketing. De Tomasi is a seasoned executive with experience leading teams that sell to SMBs, specializing in B2B marketing, branding, demand generation and product marketing.
Faldi’s previous experience includes serving as president of Americas at TeamViewer, partner revenue officer at LifeLock and president and CEO of Trueffect. De Tomasi previously served as head of marketing for TeamViewer. Prior to that, she served as director of demand generation and marketing for Rollbar.
CommentSold provides the technology infrastructure retail SMBs need to operate and grow their businesses. The digital platform simplifies inventory and order management, payments, invoicing, labeling, packaging and fulfillment processing for business owners, and enables live and social selling on social media, mobile apps and websites.
Cart.com
Cart.com, an end-to-end e-commerce services provider, appointed Tony Puccetti as its new chief delivery officer (CDO).
Puccetti will manage the execution of all client deliverables as Cart.com builds on its recent $98 million Series B funding round and a series of major acquisitions, to grow its e-commerce-as-a-Service (ECaaS) platform.
Puccetti joins Cart.com from Blue Acorn iCi, a digital consultancy, where he served as chief operating office and spearheaded the company’s end-to-end e-commerce services business unit.
Cart.com offers a range of business solutions, including online store software; digital marketing, fulfillment and financial services; customer service capabilities and unified analytics across all areas of commerce and marketing performance.