Overstock.com Taps Dave Nielsen as President of Retail Business

May 14, 2019  by Laurie Northington in Executive Changes, Industry   

Nielsen will transition his role as chief sourcing and operations officer to Ron Hilton, former vice president of sourcing. These changes are effective immediately.   

“Dave has been a star contributor to our firm. I know him to be a first-rate professional, and he is highly regarded,” said Byrne. “These promotions mark the completion of a redesign of our executive structure: the result of the process is a highly skilled, competent, and cohesive Retail executive team, of which Dave is now the leader.”

“I’m honored to be named president of Overstock’s Retail Division and to continue working with a terrific team of executives,” said Nielsen. “Patrick has assembled some of the best talent the industry has to offer in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Marketing, Digital Product Technology, Strategy, and Sourcing and Operations. The impressive turnaround work from all of my colleagues over the past six months is evidence of Overstock’s enterprise-wide talent, dedication, and hard work. We are focused on our customer, and the future is bright!”

Prior to this role, Nielsen served as chief sourcing and operations officer, where he was responsible for overseeing the sourcing, merchandising, partner management, and supply chain teams for the company. Before leaving Overstock to assume the role of CEO at Global Access, Nielsen spent six years with Overstock, rising to the position of co-president and leading the company’s marketing, merchandising, and supply chain operations.

Nielsen also held leadership roles with Payless ShoeSource, Inc. and Old Town Imports, LLC. He received his bachelor’s Degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Marketing from Brigham Young University.

Hilton joined Overstock in 2009 as the home and garden merchandising manager and has held several leadership roles in the merchandising organization since. He left the company in 2015 to assume the role of president at Endygo, a global sales and logistics firm specializing in e-commerce and drop-shipping delivery and returned to Overstock in 2016 assuming the role of vice president of sourcing. Prior to working at Overstock, Hilton was vice president of marketing for furniture warehouse.

In addition to the changes in Overstock’s retail management, there are adjustments to its board of directors. Kirthi Kalyanam served out the end of his three-year commitment to the board of directors and will now fully devote his time to the completion of a book on retailing. Saum Noursalehi is also stepping down from the board to take a position on the tZERO board of directors, maintaining his role as CEO of tZERO. There are no immediate plans to fill these positions.

“We appreciate all that Kirthi and Saum have contributed to growing the retail business and their valuable insights will be missed,” Byrne concluded.

The tZERO Board was also reconstituted with the following directors: Jonathan Johnson, Chairman; Saum Noursalehi; Chris Campbell; and Bruce Fenton.