New Nordstrom board member could bolster innovation

A luxury retail giant just made a move that could step up its digital efforts.



Nordstrom appointed Stacy Brown-Philpot to its board of directors, and she will also serve as a member of the board’s finance and technology committees. She replaces Enrique 'Rick' Hernandez, Jr., who announced earlier this year that he would not be seeking re-election.



Brown-Philpot has been CEO of freelance job site TaskRabbit since April 2016. Prior to taking on this role, she was the company's COO. Before joining TaskRabbit in 2013, she spent the latter half of 2012 as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at GV, the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet, Inc.



She also spent nearly a decade at Google in various roles, including senior director of global consumer operations. Here, she also oversaw online sales and operations. Brown-Philpot has also served as a senior analyst at Goldman Sachs and senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.



This is not Brown-Philpot’s first seat on a corporate board. She has been on HP’s board of directors since 2015.



Overall, Nordstrom hopes to leverage Brown-Philpot’s knowledge in the digital space. “Stacy brings a breadth of unique innovation, operational, and entrepreneurial experience to our Board," said Phil Satre, chairman of the board of directors for Nordstrom. "We're thrilled to have her join us and look forward to adding her e-commerce expertise as we work to improve the omnichannel shopping experience for our customers."



With a stronger focus on innovation, the company could explore new practices aimed at boosting dipping in-store sales. For its first fiscal quarter ended April 29, 2017, Nordstrom’s total net sales increased 2.7% to $3.3 billion. While same-store sales fell 0.8%, online sales accounted for 24% of total net sales during the period.