New CFO for Bebe amid management changes

BRISBANE, Calif. — Bebe has appointed current principal accounting officer and VP, corporate controller Liyuan Woo as its new CFO.

Woo has been with Bebe stores since 2010. She will retain the principal accounting officer title and will be responsible for global finance, accounting, treasury, tax, compliance, planning and strategic corporate development. She will report directly to CEO Steve Birkhold.

Woo will succeed Walter J. Parks, COO and CFO, who is departing the company May 3. Bebe is eliminating the COO position, and Birkhold will assume COO responsibilities. The company expressed a desire for a flatter, more streamlined organizational structure.

“We are pleased to be able to recognize Liyuan Woo’s talent, accomplishments and strategic financial skills by promoting her to the CFO role,” said Birkhold. “We are also grateful to Walter Parks for his many contributions to Bebe during the past 10 years, and for his assistance over the four months since I joined the company in helping to facilitate the transition and position Bebe for a new level of success.”

Prior to joining Bebe, Woo was a senior manager at Deloitte & Touche’s mergers and acquisitions transaction services group. In that role, she advised private equity firms and strategic buyers in a variety of industries on mergers and acquisitions, capital structure analysis and recapitalizations, leveraged buyouts, financial due diligence and transaction modeling.

Bebe is a global specialty retailer that currently operates 245 stores in the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Canada.