Spencer Stuart Recruits CFO for Blue Apron
January 11, 2021 – The pressure on chief financial officers during the pandemic has been significant. That has made finding the best ones big business for executive recruiters. Just recently, Spencer Stuart placed Randy J. Greben as the new treasurer and CFO of meal-kit delivery services company Blue Apron Holdings.
The previous CFO, Timothy S. Bensley, recently resigned to pursue another opportunity. Mr. Bensley will continue to serve as an advisor to Blue Apron through the middle of the 2021 first quarter to assist with transitioning his role. “Randy has helped drive growth in new business operations across different sales channels, while also implementing strategies to efficiently manage business operations,” said Linda Findley Kozlowski, president and CEO of Blue Apron. “We believe that his experience across direct-to-consumer, E-Commerce, and the food industry will be an asset to our senior management team and finance department. I look forward to Randy’s contributions in 2021 as we continue to build on our 2020 progress and the execution of our growth strategy.”
Mr. Greben brings more than 20 years of finance and e-commerce operations experience to his new role, including a record of implementing strategic growth and scaling initiatives. Previously, he was senior vice president and CFO at ANN Inc., which was a subsidiary of Ascena Retail Group Inc. In his role, he oversaw corporate and brand finance, strategic planning, E-Commerce product management, credit and loyalty programs, and several new business activations for the Ann Taylor, LOFT and Lou & Grey brands.
Prior to ANN, Mr. Greben served for nearly four years as CFO and general manager at Quidsi, which was a subsidiary of Amazon.com. While there, he led close to 1,300 associates across four locations in finance, accounting, tax, inventory management, operations, logistics and customer care. Earlier in his career, Mr. Greben served as central finance director for Tesco’s U.S. venture, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets Inc., and held multiple finance roles at Taco Bell, a YUM! Brands company.
“Blue Apron has built a solid foundation and made progress against its growth strategy over the past year and a half,” said Mr. Greben. “As a fan of the brand and its mission, I am excited to work with Linda, the entire Blue Apron team and the board of directors to help drive the next phase of the company’s growth strategy as it leans into product innovation, scale and marketing investment.”
Blue Apron is an ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service which exclusively operates in the U.S. The weekly boxes contain ingredients along with suggested recipes that must be cooked by hand by the customer using the pre-ordered ingredients. The company, which is based in New York, was founded in 2012.
Spencer Stuart has conducted more than 1,200 senior-level finance searches over the past 24 months for clients that include Fortune 500, FTSE 100, DAX 30 and HS 100 companies, as well as private equity firms and their portfolio companies, emerging companies and non-profit organizations. The firm has experience finding the finance leaders required to succeed in a variety of capacities, including chief financial officer, accounting, audit, controls, corporate development, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), investor relations, risk, tax and treasury.
New Pressures on CFOs
Immediate concerns around cash flow, liquidity and the bottom line are taking precedence at many companies due to continued fallout from the pandemic. But there are high-value lessons emerging from the current health and economic crisis that chief financial officers should bear in mind, according to recruiters specializing in finding talent for finance functional roles.
Executive Search Review Special Issue: Financial Services Recruiting
Hunt Scanlon Media has just released our latest special issue of ESR. This time around we take an in-depth look at the challenges financial services firms are facing in their hunt for new talent.
We cover it all: How CFOs are confronting new layers of risk in the pandemic era; the rapid and dramatic change coming at the CFO; using people analytics to acquire top talent, predict performance & reduce turnover; and why banks are turning to search firms. We even provide our latest “Financial Fifty Recruiters” ranking of financial services search firms! In this special issue of ESR, Hunt Scanlon editors take an extraordinary inside look at recruiting during these unprecedented times. Click here and enjoy.
The COVID-19 crisis has thrust CFOs into the spotlight as never before, they report, while the pandemic itself has also created a business environment in which CFOs are uniquely positioned to drive business value during the recovery phase, which is expected to come in 2021 and 2022.
All too many companies today are desperate to get as much cash on their balance sheets as possible in order to ride out the storm of COVID-19, say recruiters. Bottom-line pressures are forcing many businesses to shift their forecasting strategies, explore new products and services — or even expand into alternative sales and delivery channels. The best CFOs are spearheading that effort.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
