Online fashion retailer names new CEO
NEW YORK — Online fashion retailer Bluefly announced that it has promoted Joseph Park, previously COO, to CEO, effective immediately, replacing Melissa Payner, who resigned as CEO and a member of the company’s board of directors. Park is also replacing Payner on the board of directors. Park joined Bluefly as COO in June 2011 after founding and leading several successful Internet businesses during the past fourteen years.
David Wassong, chairman of the board, commented, “The promotion of Joseph to CEO recognizes his strong leadership skills and business acumen, as well as his exceptional contributions since joining Bluefly as COO last year. I want to thank Melissa for her significant contributions since joining the Company as president in 2003. Melissa transformed Bluefly into a site for sought after luxury brands at tremendous value, serving more than 20 million unique visitors each year. While we are sad to see Melissa leave, the board is highly confident in Joseph and in Bluefly’s future under his direction.”
Park joined Bluefly in June 2011 as COO following a diverse and successful career in the Internet industry. Most recently, he was SVP consumer digital products at HarperCollins where he co-founded Bookperk.com, a group buying e-commerce website for avid book readers and spearheaded their overall consumer digital and monetization strategy. Park came to HarperCollins through its’ acquisition of BibleGateway, the largest biblical reference website where he was hired as president.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Park co-founded and was the CEO of Kozmo.com, the first Internet retailer to provide same-day, one hour delivery service to consumers. This was followed by work at Microsoft, in its corporate strategy group, after which he joined Amazon.com in 2005 where he co-founded and launched Askville.com, one of the leading social Q&A communities on the Web. Park earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, journalism, and political science from New York University and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.