Gilt Groupe said on Thursday it hired board member and Citigroup Inc
Internet executive Michelle Peluso as chief executive as the e-commerce
company prepares for a possible initial public offering next year.
Peluso
will replace Gilt founder and current CEO Kevin Ryan in late February.
Ryan will become chairman of Gilt and the company's current chairman
Susan Lyne will be vice chairman, the company said.
Ryan founded
Gilt in 2007 as the first major flash sales company in the United
States. Flash sales, pioneered by Vente Privee in France, are
limited-time, online sales of mostly luxury goods such as apparel and
accessories.
Gilt grew fast and raised more than $100 million in
2011 at a valuation of about $1 billion. It used that cash to expand
quickly into other categories and businesses. But the company has closed
some of these new ventures and cut staff in recent quarters as it tries
to become profitable ahead of what it hopes will be an IPO in late
2013.
Tapping Peluso as CEO is part of the IPO preparation,
according to Ryan, who said he now spends about three days a week
focusing on Gilt and the rest of his time working on other businesses
including database startup 10gen and news website Business Insider.
"Gilt
is going to go public at some point and with new investors I can't do
all these other things," he said. "I'm getting stretched too thin."
Peluso
will be a good CEO for Gilt because the company is larger now and needs
an executive who has experience running a bigger organization, Ryan
added.
Before Citigroup, Peluso was CEO of Travelocity, an online
travel unit of Sabre Holdings, which had thousands of employees when she
ran it, Ryan noted.
"Gilt needs someone who has entrepreneurial
spirit but who can manage at scale too," Ryan said. Gilt has about 1,000
employees now, up from roughly 850 a year earlier, he noted.
© Thomson Reuters 2012