Ms. Watson has served as a member of our Board of Directors, and as a member of the Audit, Compensation, and Corporate Governance and Nominating committees, since May 25, 2021, and Chair of the Compensation Committee since February 2, 2022. Ms. Watson is a highly accomplished senior executive with more than 20 years of progressive experience in global retail, wholesale, omni-channel, technology, digital and direct-to-consumer, and a proven history of leadership across multiple other industries. Ms. Watson’s core skills include: digital transformation, business unit P&L leadership, marketing, public relations, e-Commerce, talent development, customer service, organizational restructuring and M&A. Ms. Watson has held global leadership roles with companies such as Petco (NASDAQ: WOOF), Wolverine Worldwide (NYSE: WWW), Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) and Eddie Bauer. She currently works as a chief marketing officer (CMO), board member and consultant with private equity, venture capital, start-ups and publicly traded companies.
In February, 2022, Ms. Watson joined the board of Crecera Brands, the holding company for direct-to-consumer brands: The Golf Warehouse (www.TGW.com operated in Wichita, Kansas) and Sportsman's Guide (www.sportsmansguide.com in Minneapolis, Minnesota). Since November 2018, Ms. Watson has been a member of the Board of Directors of Dakota Supply Group, an employee-owned organization in the building distribution industry, where she is the Chair of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee, and a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Since December 2018, Ms. Watson has been an Advisory Board member for QLTY, a direct-to-consumer work boot manufacturer.
Since July 2021, Ms. Watson has been a member of the board of directors of Dogtopia, a company in the business of franchise dog daycare. From January 2018 to September 2021, Ms. Watson worked as the CMO for SmartCanister, an IoT technology platform for just-in-time delivery of subscription-based coffee. From January 2019 to September 2020, Ms. Watson was the Vice Chair of the Board for TrueLeaf Pet, a publicly traded manufacturer in Canada and direct to consumer seller of pet food and other health and wellness products, where she also led the Governance and Compensation Committees.
From March 2016 to August 2017, Ms. Watson served as the SVP and interim CMO for Petco (NASDAQ: WOOF), including the Unleashed by Petco and Drs. Foster & Smith divisions, where she held P&L accountability for all e-Commerce, including marketing, pharmacy and call centers. She was responsible for marketing for 1,400 stores with a team of 1,000 employees. From January 2009 to February 2016, Ms. Watson was President of Consumer Direct at Wolverine Worldwide (NYSE: WWW), where Ms. Watson led the company’s digital transformation within a $2.6 billion public portfolio company for 13 brands. During her 7 years at Wolverine, Ms. Watson was responsible for all direct-to-consumer operations, this included P&L ownership of omni-channel initiatives for 85 global websites and 200 stores. From January 2003 to January 2008, Ms. Watson was Director and Vice President of Direct Marketing Services for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM), where she led customer acquisition for all 7 brands, in all channels of business: Retail, e-Commerce and Catalog.
Ms. Watson has held numerous leadership positions for industry and non-profit organizations and is a frequent spokesperson, public speaker and contributor for industry conferences, events and publications including the GlobalPETS, Direct Marketing Association, National Retail Foundation, E-tail, and the Global Pet Food Forum. Ms. Watson holds a master’s degree in Design Methods: Human Centered Design from the IIT Institute of Design - Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL, and a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Management from the School of Business at Portland State University in Portland, OR. She has held numerous board and committee positions for business advocacy groups and non-profits and is a frequent speaker at industry events. Ms. Watson has a long-standing passion for animal health and wellness, volunteering for three months aboard the Sea Shepherd in the Fall of 2017. Ms. Watson’s extensive and high-level experience in the pet industry and other retail industries, as well as her board experience with other corporations, enables her to make very significant contributions to the Board’s decision-making processes, especially in e-commerce and other marketing matters.