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Qurate Retail Group Announces Executive Leadership Appointments

QRTEA | May 22, 2018

Canada NewsWire

WEST CHESTER, Pa., May 22, 2018

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, Pa., May 22, 2018 /CNW/ -- 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.