Casper Announces New Leadership and Board Appointments

December 5, 2019  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

“Adding world-class, experienced leaders remains critical as we try to keep up with global demand across the growing business of sleep,” said Philip Krim, CEO and co-founder at Casper. “Our team—combined with our innovative sleep offerings, exceptional customer experiences, and relentless focus on our long-term vision—uniquely positions Casper to become the world’s go-to brand for better sleep.”

Casper added the following individuals to its leadership ranks:

Emilie Arel, president and chief commercial officer: Arel joins Casper with more than 20 years of leadership experience spanning retail, merchandising, customer experience, and marketing. Previously, Arel was the CEO of FullBeauty Brands, and also CEO of Quidsi, an Amazon company. Prior to Quidsi, Arel held multiple leadership positions at Gap, Inc., including leading over 220 stores and a team of over 12,000 employees. Arel will lead the Company’s commercial and brand strategy as the demand for Casper products and services continues to grow across channels and geographies.

Ben Clark, chief technology officer: Clark comes to Casper from Wayfair, where, most recently as chief architect, he spent several years strengthening and evolving the home goods ecommerce company’s tech platform, while expanding the engineering team through several critical stages of its ongoing growth. His responsibilities included scaling the company’s customer recommendations, search and browse, customer-facing websites, software for operations and finance, as well as data and applications infrastructure. At Casper, Clark will focus on pushing digital products forward and enhancing the Company’s systems to accelerate operational efficiency.

Casper also added the following to its board of directors:

Diane Irvine, independent director: Irvine joins Casper’s board with over a decade of Director-level governance experience across companies like Yelp, where she is chairperson of the board, as well as XO Group and D.A. Davidson. Irvine also brings extensive operating and financial experience from her previous roles as CFO and CEO at Blue Nile, Inc., the online diamond and jewelry retailer, where she also served on the board.

Jack Lazar, independent director: Lazar has previously served as the CFO of multiple public companies, including GoPro and Atheros Communications, and was a SVP/General Manager at Qualcomm. He currently sits on the boards of brands like thredUP and Tile, as well as Mellanox, Silicon Labs, and Residio. He brings a wealth of governance, financial, operations, and public company experience to Casper, having worked with and operated in a wide variety of consumer and technology companies.

“I was immediately drawn to Casper because of the Company’s ability to connect with consumers in the sleep category in a way that no other brand has,” said Emilie Arel, president and chief commercial officer. “Casper has reinvented the shopping experience with a multichannel approach that meets consumers wherever they are—online, in branded stores, or with retail partners. I’m honored to help propel a company with such a coveted mix of strong fundamentals, best-in-class products, and a magnetic brand into its next growth chapter.”

“Emilie, Ben, Diane, and Jack bring invaluable experience to Casper as we continue to scale and bring better sleep to more people across the globe,” added Krim.