Herbert Mines Assists Designer Brands with CFO Search
February 24, 2026 – New York-based retail and consumer focused executive search firm Herbert Mines Associates has assisted in the recruitment of Sheamus Toal as executive vice president, chief financial officer and principal financial officer of NYSE-traded Designer Brands Inc. Mark Haley, who has served as interim principal financial officer during the transition period, will return full time to his position as senior vice president, controller and principal accounting officer.
“Sheamus brings an exceptional blend of financial expertise and operational leadership, with a strong track record of navigating complexity and building resilient, high-performing organizations,” said Doug Howe, CEO. “I am confident his experience working closely with management teams, boards, and the investor community will be invaluable as we continue to execute on our strategic initiatives and drive long-term value for our stakeholders.”
Mr. Toal brings deep financial and operational experience shaped by decades of leadership in CFO and chief operating officer roles across large, complex public and private companies. As a proven strategic partner to boards and management teams, he has led omnichannel retailers through critical milestones including acquisitions, capital raises, and reorganizations.
Most recently, Mr. Toal served as COO and CFO of The Children’s Place, overseeing finance and end-to-end operations for a multi-brand public retailer with significant size and scale. In this role, he strengthened liquidity, optimized a digitally-driven business model, and delivered significant cost savings and earnings improvement. Previously, Mr. Toal served as EVP and CFO of Saatva.com, where he drove a notable growth in topline revenue, improvement in profitability, led public-company readiness efforts, and executed major financing transactions. Earlier, he spent more than a decade in senior leadership roles at the multi-brand publicly traded retailer New York & Company, including 12 years as CEO, and then later served as CEO.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join Designer Brands and work alongside such a talented leadership team during an incredibly exciting and transformative period,” said Mr. Toal. “I look forward to partnering closely across the organization to build on the strong foundation already in place, strengthen our financial and operational capabilities, and support the company’s long-term growth strategy.”
Designer Brands Inc. is a publicly traded footwear and accessories designer, producer, and retailer headquartered in Columbus, OH, operating across the U.S. and Canada. The company’s business includes direct-to-consumer retail — most notably the DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) banner — as well as wholesale and brand portfolio segments that include well-known names such as Vince Camuto, Keds, and Hush Puppies.
Established in 1978, Herbert Mines is a specialist search firm focusing on the retail, fashion and apparel, beauty, consumer products and services, hospitality, leisure, restaurant, and digital/technology industries. The firm is noted for its C-suite recruiting work. Herbert Mines has conducted upwards of 3,600 searches during the tenure of Hal Reiter, who joined the firm in 1993 as president, and was appointed chairman and chief executive officer in 1998.
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Brenda Malloy is the firm’s CEO. She brings over 40 years of experience to Herbert Mines Associates. During her career, she has authored numerous articles on retail CEO succession, omnichannel leadership, in addition to being a featured speaker at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York City. Working with leading retailers at the senior-most levels to assemble winning leadership teams, Ms. Malloy primarily recruits board directors, CEOs, and their direct reports for publicly traded, privately held and private equity backed companies spanning vertical specialty, lifestyle and branded retail, off-price/value, grocery, hardlines, mass, and the specialty department store sectors.
Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. Search
This past fall, Herbert Mines partnered with Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. in the placement of Frank Kerr as executive vice president, chief store operations officer. “Frank’s proven leadership experience in grocery retail and the exceptional results he has achieved throughout his career, in both licensee and traditional grocery models, make him an ideal leader of our store operations team,” said Jason Potter, president and CEO of Grocery Outlet. “Frank brings operational expertise across a multitude of functional areas, including store operations, marketing, strategy, and market expansion, to support our independent operators to drive execution and store performance in our next chapter of profitable growth. We look forward to welcoming Frank to our team.”
Mr. Kerr has more than a decade of progressive leadership experience in the grocery retail space, and has a strong track record of driving growth, efficiency, and profitability across large store fleets. He joined Grocery Outlet from Lidl US, where he most recently served as the company’s senior vice president, operations, and its chief customer officer.
Based in Emeryville, CA, Grocery Outlet is a high-growth, extreme value retailer of quality, name-brand consumables and fresh products sold primarily through a network of independently operated stores. Grocery Outlet and its subsidiaries have more than 550 stores in California, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Idaho, Nevada, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky and Virginia.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
