Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM), the world's largest digital-first, design-led and sustainable home retailer, announced today four internal leadership updates that will further strengthen the business strategy and efficiencies of the Pottery Barn brands as well as the company's global business and marketing departments. The promotion and alignment of these executives will create corporate synergies designed to deliver value for customers and shareholders and demonstrates the strength of the company's leadership bench.
"Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is known for developing leaders and attracting the best talent in the industry," said Williams-Sonoma, Inc. President and CEO, Laura Alber. "This promotion of internal, long-tenured leaders with proven track records of delivering results, reflects the strength of our leadership bench. These leadership moves, coupled with our recent appointment of Day Kornbluth as the new President of West Elm, positions us with an incredibly strong team to deliver long-term growth and success for Williams-Sonoma, Inc."
Pottery Barn President, Marta Benson will expand her current role to Chief Executive Officer Pottery Barn Brands. In her new position, Benson will report to Williams-Sonoma, Inc. CEO, Laura Alber and oversee the Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen brands while remaining President of Pottery Barn. During Benson's 12 years with Williams-Sonoma, Inc., she has been instrumental in leading dynamic growth in Pottery Barn, positioning the brand with differentiated design offerings, while amplifying sustainability as a core value and driving the brand's digital transformation. Benson's background in strategy and business development, coupled with her entrepreneurial track record, will help drive growth and synergies across the Pottery Barn family of brands.
Added Benson, "I am thrilled to step into this leadership role and drive stronger collaboration, synergies and new strategies for growth across the Pottery Barn Brands with these great teams."
Jen Kellor, President, Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen, will continue to lead the strategy and operations of Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen while reporting to Benson. During her 25 years with Williams-Sonoma, Inc., Kellor has developed a proven track record of delivering results and successfully growing the Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen brands.
Michelle Hummel has been promoted to lead Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s Global Business, stepping into this role after serving as the interim leader since July 2022. Hummel has held various leadership roles in merchandising and business development across the brand portfolio during her 24-years with Williams-Sonoma, Inc., including serving as a key leader of the Global Business for the last 10 years. The valuable expertise Hummel has acquired during her tenure uniquely positions her to drive profitable growth for Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s Global Business and franchise partners.
Abby Teisch has been promoted to lead Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s cross-brand Marketing teams including Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Strategy and Analytics, Digital Marketing and Loyalty. Teisch has been with Williams-Sonoma, Inc. for over 17 years and was recently appointed the interim leader of the Marketing teams following Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s former Chief Marketing Officer, Felix Carbullido's promotion to President of the Williams Sonoma brand in July of 2022. Teisch's proven depth of marketing expertise and leadership will guide the Marketing teams into the next phase of company growth.
Added Alber, "This organizational re-alignment of tenured leaders who have proven excellence throughout their careers at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. positions our company to create corporate synergies designed to deliver value for our customers and shareholders."
ABOUT WILLIAMS-SONOMA, INC.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is the world's largest digital-first, design-led and sustainable home retailer. The company's products, representing distinct merchandise strategies — Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, West Elm, Williams Sonoma Home, Rejuvenation, and Mark and Graham — are marketed through e-commerce websites, direct-mail catalogs and retail stores. These brands are also part of The Key Rewards, our loyalty and credit card program that offers members exclusive benefits across the Williams-Sonoma family of brands. We operate in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, offer international shipping to customers worldwide, and have unaffiliated franchisees that operate stores in the Middle East, the Philippines, Mexico, South Korea and India, as well as e-commerce websites in certain locations. We are also proud to be a leader in our industry with our Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") efforts. Our company is Good By Design — we've deeply ingrained sustainability into our business. From our factories to your home, we're united in a shared purpose to care for our people and our planet.
For more information on our ESG efforts, please visit: https://sustainability.williams-sonomainc.com/
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or are proven incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements in the quotes of our leaders and statements related to the benefits of our leadership changes.
The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include: continuing changes in general economic conditions, and the impact on consumer confidence and consumer spending; the impact of inflation and measures to control inflation on consumer spending; the continuing impact of the coronavirus, war in Ukraine, and shortages of various raw materials on our global supply chain, retail store operations and customer demand; the outcome of our growth initiatives; new interpretations of or changes to current accounting rules; our ability to anticipate consumer preferences and buying trends; dependence on timely introduction and customer acceptance of our merchandise; changes in consumer spending based on weather, political, competitive and other conditions beyond our control; delays in store openings; competition from companies with concepts or products similar to ours; timely and effective sourcing and manufacturing of merchandise from our foreign and domestic vendors and delivery of merchandise through our supply chain to our stores and customers; effective inventory management; inventory constraints; our ability to manage customer returns; uncertainties in e-marketing, infrastructure and regulation; multi-channel and multi-brand complexities; our ability to introduce new brands and brand extensions; challenges associated with our increasing global presence; dependence on external funding sources for operating capital; disruptions in the financial markets; our ability to control employment, occupancy, supply chain, product, and other operating costs; our ability to improve our systems, operations and processes; changes to our information technology infrastructure; general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism; the impact of current and potential future tariffs and our ability to mitigate impacts; the potential for increased corporate income taxes; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our public announcements, reports to stockholders and other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2022 and all subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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