Maisonette adds former Yahoo CEO to board, names new COO

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Jun 11, 2019

Children’s online retailer Maisonette has named Marissa Mayer, former president and chief executive officer of Yahoo Inc. and co-founder of Lumi Labs Inc., to the company's board of directors.

The board is set to benefit from Mayer’s seasoned career as a tech innovator. She served as Yahoo’s president and CEO for five years before co-founding Lumi Labs, an early-stage start-up focused on building consumer applications enabled by artificial intelligence, in 2018. Prior to her time with Yahoo, Mayer was the first female engineer at Google. During her 13 years with the company, she led the development of the site's most successful products, including Google Maps, Google Earth, Google News and Gmail. In addition, she has served on the board of Walmart since 2012.

In her new role, Mayer said she will work with Maisonette’s co-founders, Sylvana Ward Durrett and Luisana Mendoza de Roccia, to scale and grow the company. She will become the fourth board member of Maisonette.

According to Durrett, Mayer “has lent her expertise and provided advice on many elements of the business,” throughout the course of Maisonette.

"[Mayer's] renowned background as a Silicon Valley leader and innovator is invaluable to any startup, especially a female-founded company," said de Roccia. "As we continue to redefine this fast-growing sector and create an inspiring digital platform for millennial parents, we look forward to merging our networks and background within retail, fashion, and consumer with [Mayer’s] in the technology sector."

In addition to Mayer, Maisonette's board includes Durrett, de Roccia, and Tony Florence, general partner and head of technology investing at NEA, the lead investor who spearheaded Maisonette's seed and series A funding.

Maisonette also revealed it has appointed Chris Sponiar as chief operating officer. Sponiar joins Maisonette from Walmart's U.S. e-commerce division, where he served as general manager of Walmart.com's toys and seasonal business.

He joined Walmart as part of the retail giant’s acquisition of Jet.com in 2016. Sponiar brings start-up experience to Maisonette through his time investing in digital marketing and e-commerce businesses with Unilever's corporate venture fund, Unilever Ventures.