Boden names tech chief, Perkinson moves from Tory Burch

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 26, 2019

Shaun Perkinson is the new chief technology officer at lifestyle apparel brand Boden. It’s a newly-created position for the exec who has a powerful track record at some major fashion labels.

Joining on April 23 and reporting directly to CEO Jill Easterbook, his most recent post was at Tory Burch. At the US designer label he had been vice-president of technology – digital, retail and enterprise. 

And before that, he was director of digital technology at UK label Burberry from 2013-17 having joined the company in 2010. His earlier career included a stint as chief technology officer at the Mail Online for Associated Newspapers. While he was there, Mail Online became the biggest e-newspaper globally.

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Easterbrook said the new role is an important one for the company as it works towards being an international omnichannel retailer. Perkinson’s combination of retail and tech experience will be “invaluable”, she said and “will enable us to be even more focused on our digital platforms.”

Like other companies that began life as mail-order catalogue businesses, Boden has been transforming itself into an online-focused retailer but has also been opening stores and expanding abroad (it has a deal with Nordstrom for the US). But the website operation remains key to Boden’s success and Perkinson will clearly be a lynchpin of the firm’s tech operations in his new post, with a personalisation drive expected to be a major focus.

The latest year for which privately-held Boden has published its results its 2017 and its sales in that period rose 13% to almost £350 million with pre-tax profits over £27 million.