Dive Brief:
- Switching up its C-suite, Wayfair’s chief people officer has transitioned to the chief marketing officer position, according to a company post from CEO Niraj Shah on Thursday.
- After ten years at the home company, CMO Bob Sherwin decided to exit the company on Aug. 11. As such, Chief People Officer Paul Toms took on the head marketing position on Monday and will report to incoming Chief Commercial Officer Jon Blotner.
- Ryan Gilchrist, who has been with the company since 2016, has been named Wayfair’s new chief people officer, reporting to Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Kate Gulliver.
Dive Insight:
Sherwin exits his position at Wayfair after years of growing various parts of the business, including the expansion of its omnichannel presence.
“Bob was an instrumental part of building and scaling our world-class full-funnel marketing engine, investment philosophy, and team that serves all of our brands and geos, and has been a driver of our growth as we went from from $900 Million in direct revenue since he joined to over $12 Billion — all while helping to build the Wayfair brand into a household name,” Shah said in a statement.
Taking on the chief marketing role, Toms has been at Wayfair for over 15 years in a variety of roles, though he was appointed as chief people officer in 2022. Gilchrist has served in several positions at Wayfair, most recently working as vice president and global head of central talent since January 2022.
In June, Wayfair announced that Chief Commercial Officer Steve Oblak would retire after being at the company for 14 years. Blotner was appointed as the successor, bringing forward over six years of experience at the company with leadership roles in global merchandising, private labels and more.
With the chief commercial officer transition, Wayfair also announced its quarter-to-date gross revenue had improved, landing in the negative mid-single-digit percentage range year over year.
The latest C-suite change comes a couple of months after Wayfair reported its first-quarter earnings. The company’s net revenue dropped 7.3% year over year to $2.8 billion and its net loss increased 11.3% to $355 million. Additionally, Wayfair’s active customer base declined 14.6% to 21.7 million.
