Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, GQ and Glamour, has launched a new transatlantic division that will focus on developing global opportunities in ecommerce next year.
It has appointed current head of ecommerce at French department store Galeries Lafayette Frank Zayan as president of the division. Zayan will report directly to a newly-formed transatlantic board, which will monitor global business development, and take up his new role on January 6.
The board consists of Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend, president Robert Sauerberg and Jonathan Newhouse and Nicholas Coleridge, chairman and CEO, and president of Condé Nast International respectively.
The first activity from the new division is expected to emerge 'before the end of next year'. But in a statement sent to Women's Wear Daily, Newhouse said no decisions have yet been made about what direction the new businesses would take and what the division would sell.
'Frank Zayan is very experienced and knowledgeable with regard to ecommerce and it will be up to him, with the support of the board, to determine the strategy and business plan,' he said.
He added he would 'explore and develop ideas which can serve our readers, users, advertising clients and business partners.'
Condé Nast has already made several sizeable investments in ecommerce including $20 million in Paris-based luxury website Vestiaire in September and leading a $20 million funding round into Farfetch.com in March.
It has also taken a 26 per cent stake in Monoqi, a high end furniture and design etailer in Germany and a 46 per cent stake in German jewellery site RenéSim.
Moritz Von Laffert was only last month appointed to the new post of director of acquisitions at Condé Nast international. He will take a particular interest in start-ups in the digital sector.
Before working at Galeries Lafayette, Zayan ran his own ecommerce consulting business and also founded, operated and sold his own online shoe retailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment