Hailey Werthaiser Parnes

Mason, Ohio – Downlite’s newly appointed business development exec literally grew up in the down & feather industry.

Hailey Werthaiser Parnes, who has been promoted to VP of business development for the outdoor division, is the only daughter of Marvin Werthasier, owner and one of the original founders of Downlite.

She joined the manufacturer after working for some time in education. Growing up, she was exposed to the world of down & feather processing from a young age and frequently joined her father on many trips to trade shows, sitting with him in the meetings with customers and suppliers.

“I often think about, and truly appreciate how lucky I was, to gain so much experience at a young age.” she said. “I learned so much from my father during those years.  Downlite is a unique family business that is growing tremendously. To be a part of this and work with people I have known all of my life and the new team members who have since joined the Downlite family, has been and continues to be, an incredible journey for me.”

Downlite CEO Joe Crawford said the promotion was well-earned.

“Hailey grew up in this industry, travelled with her father domestically and around the globe, and has deep understanding of sourcing, quality and down processing. This gives Hailey a unique perspective in a unique industry.   It is not possible to overstate Hailey’s value to Downlite’s outdoor division and we look forward to Hailey’s continued contributions as she steps into this new role.

See also:

Downlite taps former Himatsingka exec for marketing

Downlite hires former Hollander exec for marketing and merchandising

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s has named Christie Raymond as the company’s new chief marketing officer.

“I’m thrilled to have Christie step into the role of chief marketing officer for Kohl’s,” said Michelle Gass, Kohl’s CEO. “She joined Kohl’s several years ago bringing her tremendous experience and customer-driven leadership approach to the marketing organization.”

Raymond joined Kohl’s in 2017 as senior vice president, media and personalization, and moved up to executive vice president, customer engagement, analytics and insights in June 2020. She has been acting as the interim chief marketing officer since May 2022.

“Christie has been an asset to our senior executive team and she will be instrumental in our continued path forward as we deliver great value, a compelling brand portfolio and an inviting omnichannel experience to our millions of customers nationwide,” Gass added.

Raymond will lead the marketing organization including Kohl’s overall marketing strategy, brand and creative, media, loyalty, customer analytics, corporate communications, and Kohl’s philanthropic efforts. To support the company’s strategy to be the retailer of choice for the active and casual lifestyle, she will drive customer engagement, leverage the company’s leadership in loyalty, accelerate customer traffic, scale Kohl’s Media Network, and continue to build the Kohl’s brand.

Prior to Kohl’s, Christie held progressive roles at The Walt Disney Company. She has more than 20 years of marketing, retail industry and leadership experience.

See also:

• Kohl’s retools its plans now that acquisition deal with FG has tanked
• Home at Kohl’s slams up against a new shopping environment

Farmingdale, N.Y. — Bedgear has added three and promoted three as part of its commitment to create strong teams in both the U.S. and Asia-Pacific.

Bedgear has added two directors of marketing and sales: Tony Catanza for the U.S. Southeast territory and Jonathan Mullinax for the U.S. West territory. Both will report to Leslie Clay, vice president of marketing and sales for North America.

Catanza previously held vice president of sales roles at both Serta and Restonic. Mullinax was vice president of sales at Simmons, America’s Mattress and Hollywood Bed & Spring Manufacturing Co.

Bedgear has also promoted three to the position of player development specialist:

• Nicole Felix-Coschignano, who joined the company in 2018 as a sleep coach and is a bilingual Spanish speaker, will be serving the U.S. Southeast and South American territories.
• With the company since 2019, Frank Lopez is also bilingual Spanish speaker and will be serving the central Florida and spearheading industry-specific events.
• Colin Wolf, who joined Bedgear in 2019, will be serving the U.S. Northeast and Tri-State territories.

All three report to Holly Adorno, director of player development.

In addition, Jodie Cartwright joins Bedgear as one of the first sleep coaches for Australia. She breports to Ross Stuart, president of Asia-Pacific.

See also:

Basic bedding suppliers seeing shift in consumer currents

Ryan Ross

Dallas – Neiman Marcus Group (NMG) has established a new leadership position to accelerate growth for its flagship retail brand.

The company has hired former Kohl’s president Ryan Ross as president of Neiman Marcus, effective Aug. 15. He will report to Geoffroy van Raemdonck, CEO of NMG.

Lana Todorovich, president and chief merchandising officer of Neiman Marcus, remains in her current role and will report to Ross. David Goubert, chief customer officer for Neiman Marcus, will depart the company to pursue personal interests, including social impact businesses.

Ross until recently president of Williams Sonoma, where he was responsible for driving integrated channel strategies, customer growth and evolving the relevancy of the brands. He previously held the position of EVP marketing and digital at HSN through the company’s acquisition by QVC. He also held leadership positions at Harrods, Pottery Barn and Gap Inc.

“Ryan is a values-driven leader with a proven track record of achieving rapid growth and optimizing customer-centric experiences,” said van Raemdonck. “This new role represents the next step in our Revolutionizing Luxury Experiences strategy, and we’re confident that an esteemed omnichannel retail leader like Ryan further positions Neiman Marcus for sustainable growth.”

Related:

Pottery Barn marketing & merchandising vet named Williams-Sonoma brand president

Neiman Marcus appoints new president and chief merchandising officer

High Point, N.C. — The WithIt Scholarship Foundation has awarded 14 scholarships this year to young women from nine universities. This year’s applicants majored in industrial design, interior design, furniture design, architecture, textile design, business and supply chain and logistics.

Along with a tuition scholarship, the students were invited to attend WithIt’s professional conference in June, giving them the opportunity to meet and network with women from the industry while building upon skills they can use in their pursuit of a career within the industry.

“The scholarship committee wants each applicant to know that their effort was seen and appreciated,” said Paris Gholston, WithIt vice president of scholarship and customers relations coordinator for Mattress Recycling Council. “It was a pleasure to read through diverse, quality applications from such worthy students. The future of the furniture industry is full of knowledgeable, hardworking and innovative professionals.”

Hayley Gaines, an interior architecture student at Marywood University, received the Jena and Stephen Hall Scholarship, a scholarship given to students who show promise for innovation in business. Her goal is to create spaces that foster diversity and inclusivity, something that’s quite important to her as a biracial person.

The other 2022 recipients are: Anastasia Avlonitis, interior design, High Point University; Pooja Desai, industrial design, University of Houston; Betsy Fernandez, interior design, Randolph Community College; Stephanie Golden, interior architecture, Marywood University; Emily Johnson, interior design, Appalachian State University; Shayleigh Larsen, textile design, N.C. State University; Marina Latto, industrial design, University of Houston; Jacqueline Lerner, interior architecture, the University of N.C. at Greensboro; Katja Peereboom, furniture design, Appalachian State University; Abigail Ritch, MBA supply chain, University of Tennessee; Lucy Wang, interior design, Marywood University; Victoria Wilmoth, interior design, Randolph Community College; and Jordan Wright, interior design, Oregon State University.

The students received awards in varying amounts.

To date, WithIt has awarded more than $217,500 in tuition scholarships to qualified young women and men in universities across the U.S. who are pursuing majors that impact the home and furnishings industries, with 98% in the home furnishings industry.

This year’s donation of $40,000 from the Heritage Home Group’s Charitable Trust was used to fund the tuition scholarships and conference attendance.

Kathryn Lawrie

Denver – Bode & Well, the recently launched lifestyle brand, has hired its first president.

The product development arm of Trio, a design and visual merchandising firm, has named Kathryn Lawrie president. Lawrie brings more than 16 years’ experience in product development, licensing, sales and corporate marketing

Prior to joining the organization, Lawrie was VP of licensing and corporate marketing for Springs Creative, handling multi-million-dollar budgets with Disney, Marvel, Nintendo, Microsoft/Minecraft, Universal, Paramount, Nickelodeon and more. Experienced in design, development, sourcing and procurement, her career began in the gift and home industry where she led several home textile and decorative accessory brands, both licensed and proprietary.

Partnering with U.S. manufacturers, Bode & Well products will first launch in traditional wholesale markets to retailers as well as trade and commercial accounts.

“Seeing products come to life from the ideation stage through a full product lifecycle from design to manufacturing, every decision can impact the consumer journey,” Lawrie said.

The Bode & Well to-the-trade site’s curated collections currently include bedding, fabrics, tile, furniture and art.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve made a series of strategic hires to establish our portfolio of brands with the purpose of super-serving our clients in both the commercial and model home industries. We want to provide not only the best possible design, but the best possible products and merchandising to our loyal client base,” said Angela Harris, Trio principal and CEO.

San Francisco – Williams-Sonoma Inc. announced that Ryan Ross, president of the Williams Sonoma brand, is resigning effective July 26 to assume a leadership role outside of the company.

Laura Alber, president and CEO of Williams-Sonoma Inc. said, “On behalf of the board and executive management team, I would like to thank Ryan for his many contributions to the company.”

Ross commented, “I am proud of the accomplishments of the Williams-Sonoma brand over the recent years. I would like to thank the incredibly strong team in place for its unwavering focus on growing the business.”

Felix Carbullido

Effective immediately, Felix Carbullido will assume the role of president of the Williams-Sonoma brand. Carbullido served as chief marketing officer since 2014, leading marketing strategy and operations across the company’s portfolio of brands. He joined Williams-Sonoma in 2009 as vice president, Pottery Barn e-commerce, and was promoted in 2011 to senior vice president/general merchandise manager for Pottery Barn DTC.

“I am excited for the future growth opportunities we see in the Williams Sonoma brand with Felix at the helm,” said Alber. “He has built an incredibly talented marketing organization, and together we will launch an internal and external search for our next CMO.”

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Los Angeles — Morgan Fabrics chairman and CEO Michael Gittelson passed away July 12. He was 73.

Born March 17, 1949, in Minneapolis, Gittelson was the eldest of four sons of parents Arnold and Pat Gittelson. At age four, his family moved to California to settle in the San Fernando Valley. There, Arnie Gittelson began Morgan Fabrics, the family textile business.

Michael Gittelson began working at Morgan Fabrics in the 1970s as a salesman for the company in the Pacific Northwest.

He moved back to Los Angeles and married Tina in May 1978. In 1991, Gittelson became business partners with his father, growing the company from a leading domestic wholesale supplier of upholstery goods to an international giant in the textile industry.

He spent more than two decades establishing relationships in China, eventually establishing Morgan Fabrics of Shanghai.

Gittelson is survived by his wife Tina, his son, one brother and a cousin, Steve Gittelson who continues to work with Morgan Fabrics.

In lieu of flowers, the family would be grateful for donations to Women’s Guild Cedars Sinai (323) 904-4400; Agora Productions; The Rebecca Bender Initiative; or World Central Kitchen.

Nick Daniel

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Etsy has promoted from within to fill the role of chief product officer.

The position is going to Nick Daniel, currently VP of product management. He succeeds Kruti Patel Goyal, who will become CEO of the company’s Depop subsidiary, a global fashion resale marketplace, effective Sept. 12.

Daniel has been with Etsy for more than eight years and has led highly technical, complex and cross-functional initiatives. He championed the expansion and optimization of Etsy Ads and oversaw efforts to create a more personalized shopping experience, improve the selling platform and scale Etsy’s marketing technology capabilities.

Since joining Etsy in 2014, he has held multiple roles of increasing responsibilities, including overseeing the development of Etsy’s selling platform, advertising products, marketing technology, data enablement, product enablement and personalization products. Prior to joining Etsy, he worked in sales engineering at Google and, earlier in his career, held various consulting and software development roles.

“Nick is an Etsy veteran who has led some of our most impactful product initiatives that have enabled sellers to grow their businesses and drive more sales,” said Etsy Inc. CEO Josh Silverman.

Said Daniel: “Etsy’s product development culture enables us to rapidly test new features, respond to evolving customer needs and harness the power of technology to foster human connections. I look forward to working with the teams as we continue to create a differentiated shopping experience for buyers while bringing new opportunities to millions of creative entrepreneurs around the world.”

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Seattle –  Nordstrom – a Top 25 retailer on HTT’s Retail Giants ranking – has tapped a seasoned retail veteran to serve as president of the Nordstrom Product Group.

Nina Barjeste

Nina Barjesteh joins Nordstrom from Dick’s Sporting Goods, where she served as senior vice president of product development and design, leading the strategy, management, and execution of the company’s product development organization. Prior to joining Dick’s, she served as chief merchant of Rue 21, and spent 20 years at Target Corporation in various roles including vice president general merchandise manager women’s apparel, vice president merchandise manager kids and vice president apparel and accessories branding.

“Nina’s experience leading and transforming private label businesses will position us to take full advantage of this growth opportunity, and to continue building Nordstrom Made products that put our customers first through design, quality and value,” said Pete Nordstrom, president and chief brand officer. “We’re excited to see how she will build on the 50-year legacy of Nordstrom’s private label brands with her own fresh perspective.”

The company has also promoted Deniz Anders to senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Anders has been with the company for 22 years, most recently serving as vice president of marketing. She steps into the role previously held by Scott Meden, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

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