REI makes executive appointments

Seattle -- REI announced that Annie Zipfel has been promoted to senior VP marketing. With her, REI will not hire a chief marketing officer as previously announced, but instead add a senior creative leader to the company.



Zipfel joined REI in 2012 as the divisional VP customer marketing, and was named VP of the marketing division in January 2014. Prior to REI, she held leadership and strategic roles at Target and General Mills.



In other appointments, REI promoted Julie Averill to VP information technology and named Mark Stoddard as VP planning, inventory management and operations.



Averill leads the company's technology organization. She has more than 25 years technology experience, and has served as the interim VP for the past two months. Before joining REI, she was vice president of technology at Nordstrom.



After a nationwide search, Stoddard assumes the newly created role of VP planning, inventory management and operations. He will provide strategic direction and leadership for inventory management, forecasting, replenishment, operations, and systems teams. Most recently he was the vice president of merchandise planning and allocation for apparel retailer Catherines.