Julie Bornstein, chief marketing and chief digital officer for Sephora Americas, is heading to apparel dot-com Stitch Fix.
Bornstein, who has sat on the Stitch Fix board since November 2012, has been named chief operating officer of the company, overseeing strategy, marketing, styling and client experience. Her last day at Sephora will be April 3. Prior to joining Sephora in August 2007, Bornstein held digital executive roles at both Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters.
“Julie leaves Sephora with a legacy of innovation and an exceptionally talented team,” Calvin McDonald, president and chief executive officer of Sephora Americas, said in a memo to employees Wednesday. “During her tenure at Sephora, Julie led the launch of Beauty Insider, the relaunch of sephora.com, our entry into mobile, social and store digital, and helped us to create a true omnichannel mentality. She will be missed.”
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Bornstein’s departure follows executive moves in January, when Margarita Arriagada, then chief merchant of Sephora, made the decision to retire, and Maureen Watson, then senior vice president of merchandising, decided to leave the company. Artemis Patrick, who at that time was vice president and general manager of the Sephora inside J.C. Penney business, was moved to Sephora Americas as senior vice president of merchandising, replacing Watson. Patrick started her new position on Feb 2. Until Patrick’s successor is named, the Sephora inside J.C. Penney team will report directly to Satish Malhotra, executive vice president of Latin America, Sephora Canada and Sephora inside J.C. Penney, McDonald said.
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As with the January executive moves, Bornstein’s exit means several employees are shifting positions. Mary Beth Laughton, senior vice president of e-commerce and digital marketing, has been promoted to be a member of the Operating Committee, and Jon Quinn, vice president of analytics and CRM will now report to Laughton. As well, Marcy Zelmar, vice president of digital innovation; Deborah Yeh, vice president of marketing; and Boyoung Lee, vice president and executive creative director, will all report to McDonald effective April 6.
“I am proud of the enormous strides we are making to further enhance the exceptional Sephora experience, and look forward to continuing our digital and marketing strategies with the team,” McDonald noted.
Among the company’s recent initiatives: a new retail innovation concept called the Innovation Lab, led by Bridget Dolan and located in San Francisco, a space where Sephora can road-test products and retail ideas; and a contouring app done with Map My Beauty, which personalizes application instructions to individual users’ faces via a selfie. McDonald noted at a gathering of beauty editors on March 12 that the company is also launching a subset of the Innovation Lab called Idea Central, which is intended to harvest ideas from all employees and put the most promising of them into production.
Also on McDonald’s to-do list: Revamped stores — particularly the units at Power and Prudential in San Francisco and on West 34th Street in Manhattan. The latter will involve a move from its current location at 130 West 34th Street to a 11,000-square-foot space down the block.