Rue21 appoints Laurie Van Brunt as president & CEO

Rue21 has named Laurie Van Brunt as the president and chief executive officer, effective June 25, 2018. Michele Pascoe has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer, and Stephen Sommers has been named senior vice president and chief marketing officer.

Van Brunt joins Rue21 from Chico’s FAS, Inc., where she was president of Soma Intimates from 2010 to 2017. She succeeds Michael C. Appel who was named interim chief executive officer in October 2017. Appel will continue to serve as chairman of the Board.

Appel said, “We are very pleased to have Laurie join Rue21 to lead our management team. She is a proven results-oriented leader within all aspects of the business who has successfully led, built and turned around specialty store apparel brands. With our increased financing in place, Laurie’s leadership, our new senior team, and the utilisation of innovative data analytics to drive our business, we are confident that Rue21 will be an even stronger brand that delivers outstanding growth and profit.”

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Pascoe joins Rue21 from Alvarez & Marsal, a financial consulting firm, where she provided financial advisory services for various retail organisations. She succeeds Stephen Coulombe who was named interim chief financial officer in March 2018.

Sommers was chief marketing officer at Vineyard Vines, a $400+ million specialty retail and wholesale apparel brand with approximately 100 stores, a robust website, and a growing wholesale business.