Melanie Huet Jen Daly Dan Goldblatt Esther Ni Heather Decker Danit Marquardt
Bedding major Serta Simmons Bedding has made several changes to its executive leadership team and structure. The moves were announced on Shelley Huff’s first day as chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based company.
SSB said it is integrating its direct-to-consumer and commercial functions under the company’s chief commercial officer, Melanie Huet. With this change, Huet will be responsible for the complete SSB brand portfolio and commercial strategy.
With Huet’s expanded scope, Jen Daly, chief marketing officer of Tuft & Needle, has been promoted to chief marketing officer of SSB, reporting to Huet. In her new role, she will be responsible for brand marketing across the SSB portfolio, which includes Beautyrest, Serta, Simmons and Tuft & Needle. Daly also will continue to oversee the Tuft & Needle retail stores.
Dan Goldblatt has been named interim chief operating officer. He has served as SSB’s chief human resources officer for the past three years and has played a key role evolving the company’s strategic direction, officials said. As interim chief operating officer, he will oversee the company’s supply chain and enterprise-wide customer experience teams as well as North American operations.
Esther Ni has been promoted to chief human resources officer. As senior vice president of HR operations, she has been a critical member of the HR leadership team for the past two and a half years, the company said. In her new role, she will be responsible for all human resources functions including compensation and benefits, diversity, equity and inclusion, employee culture and engagement, leadership development, organizational design and talent management.
SSB said it is creating a new strategy function and has named Heather Decker as chief strategy officer. Decker most recently served as senior vice president of central operations at SSB and chief of staff for SSB’s DTC business. As chief strategy officer, Decker will focus on positioning SSB for the future, officials said.
SSB also is adding a new leader to the executive leadership team with Danit Marquardt joining SSB as the company’s chief communications officer. In this role, she will be responsible for all corporate, brand and internal communications, as well as SSB’s philanthropic efforts. Marquardt most recently served as vice president of global corporate communications at Mattel, where she led communications for corporate stories that enhanced the company’s reputation, oversaw the internal communications team, and provided brand communications leadership to the infant preschool business.
Prior to Mattel, she spent seven years at Walmart in several corporate and consumer communications leadership roles including serving as head of consumer communications at Walmart.com and leading communications for various divisions of Walmart U.S.
“Now is an exciting time to be in the sleep industry as consumers no longer think of the mattress as a commodity but rather as a key investment and fundamental part of their sleep and wellness journey,” Huff said. “This shift offers new opportunities to reshape our business to meet the needs of sleepers across all life stages. I firmly believe we are the best positioned sleep company to meet consumers’ evolving needs and that our recent changes to the executive leadership team will enable us to deliver on our mission to help consumers sleep better and live healthier lives.”
