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From Home Furnishing Business
Sleep Number Announces Retirement of Board President & CEO
October 30,
2024 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
Sleep Number Corporation announced today that Shelly Ibach has shared her plans to retire as Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer, no later than the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Pursuant to its established succession plan, the Board of Directors has engaged an independent executive search firm to help identify Ibach’s CEO successor. To support an effective transition, Ibach will continue to serve as Chair through the conclusion of the 2025 Annual Meeting and has agreed to serve as a strategic advisor to the new CEO and Board through the end of 2025.
“Throughout her 12-year tenure as CEO, Shelly transformed the company by consistently demonstrating visionary, results-oriented leadership and driving significant business innovation. Her authenticity has inspired the commitment of the entire Sleep Number team to its purpose: to improve the health and wellbeing of society through higher quality sleep,” said Michael Harrison, Sleep Number Board independent lead director.
“Shelly’s passion for Sleep Number’s bold vision, combined with her courage, ingenuity, and resolve, have propelled the company’s strategic differentiation and growth in a highly commoditized market, earning Shelly and the company well-deserved recognition. Building on this legacy, the company’s sleep wellness technology and the operating model transformation position it for accelerated profitable growth with strong free cash flow when the bedding industry and macroeconomic environment recover.”
“I am filled with gratitude for my nearly 18 years at Sleep Number and our team members’ unwavering dedication to our mission and purpose, which has led to improving almost 16 million lives through our beloved brand. I am so proud of the innovative and resilient company we’ve built together,” said Shelly Ibach.
“Our purpose has inspired the revolutionary Sleep Number smart bed and digital wellness platform that provide life-changing value for our customers. I am honored to have led this incredible team and diverse Board through many transformations and challenging environments to emerge a stronger company and have tremendous confidence in Sleep Number’s enduring competitive advantages and continued stakeholder value creation.”
Ibach’s Impact
As Minnesota's longest tenured female leader of a public company, Ibach has transformed nearly every aspect of the company: its talented team, iconic brand, industry leading sleep innovations, vertical business model, and values-based culture. Under her guidance, the company completed a multi-year transformation from Select Comfort, a specialty mattress infomercial retailer with a limited addressable market and $743 million in annual sales, to Sleep Number, a digitally connected, sleep wellness brand with 2023 revenues of $1.9 billion.
Sleep Number became the innovation market leader by introducing the first commercialized smart bed with a multi-sided platform and proprietary ecosystem. This enabled strategic collaborations with the NFL and world-renowned health and research institutions, including the Mayo Clinic and American Cancer Society. Throughout her tenure, Ibach deliberately aligned the company’s strategic evolution and operational execution with progressive Board governance to drive long-term shareholder value.
Board Changes and Corporate Governance Enhancements
With Ibach’s retirement, she will not stand for reelection to the Board upon the expiration of her term at the 2025 Annual Meeting. The Board has unanimously determined its intent to appoint Michael Harrison as independent Chair following the 2025 Annual Meeting. Harrison has served as Sleep Number’s independent Lead Director since May 2022, drawing on deep institutional knowledge and broad consumer-facing experience.
Sleep Number also announced today that two of its longer serving directors plan to retire by the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, at which time the Board intends to reduce its size. With these retirements, the Board will implement changes to its committee leadership with overlapping chair tenures to ensure effective transitions. The Board also plans to seek shareholder approval at the 2025 Annual Meeting to amend the company’s governing documents, including commencing a process to declassify the Board and to adopt a majority voting standard for approvals of mergers and future amendments to the Company’s Articles of Incorporation. Additional details regarding these changes are outlined in the following Letter to Shareholders.
The company also announced its 2024 Third Quarter performance results today: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/54144336/en