The Wet Seal bolsters board
The Wet Seal has appointed Deena Varshavskaya, Nancy Lublin and Adam Rothstein as independent members of the company’s board of directors, bringing the total number of members to nine.
“Deena Varshavskaya, Nancy Lublin and Adam Rothstein will bring significant and unique talents and expertise to Wet Seal,” said Lynda J. Davey, chairman of the board of Wet Seal. “Their experience in e-commerce and social media, combined with their knowledge of our target demographic and Rothstein’s background as a shareholder representative, should provide Wet Seal with a remarkable amount of insight and perspective. We are excited about what they will bring to the board and look forward to working with them.”
“We are in the midst of expanding our e-commerce, social media and mobile presence. Our three new independent directors all have specific expertise, credibility and networks to help guide the company as we build out our online and mobile platforms. We are very fortunate to have them joining the board at this crucial juncture,” added CEO John D. Goodman.
Varshavskaya is the founder and CEO of social shopping platform Wanelo.
“Wet Seal understands that the future of shopping is online, where the consumer has more choice, convenience and value,” said Varshavskaya. “I’m excited to help the team better understand what today’s customer expects in terms of an omnichannel, social shopping experience.”
Lublin, a strategist with expertise in teen brand marketing, technology, the Internet, next stage fundraising and corporate citizenship, is the CEO of DoSomething.org, one of the largest organizations in America for young people and social change with more than 2.5 million active users. Lublin previously founded Dress for Success in 1996, an organization that helps women transition from welfare to work. In 2013, while already with DoSomething.org, Lublin turned her TED talk into her third company, raising $4 million to launch Crisis Text Line (CTL). CTL processed 1 million messages in its first six months.
Rothstein is general partner at Disrupt-ive Technologies Partners, an early stage venture fund making equity and equity related investments, and lead independent adviser to Gans Family Investments (GFI) and the Franklin/Eckstein Family for their public and private equity portfolios. Rothstein previously served as chief investment officer of Intana Management, a market neutral hedge fund concentrating in the technology, media and entertainment sectors. Rothstein has more than 15 years of investment experience, previously performing analysis on the technology and media sectors for Weber Capital Partners/Bluewater Capital Management.
Concurrent with their appointments, the board has appointed John S. Mills as vice-chairman of the board of directors. Mills has been a member of the board since October 2012 and also serves as chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.