Emilie Arel, president and chief commercial officer for Casper, stepped into the chief executive officer role Nov. 15.
Arel has more than 20 years of leadership experience across retail, merchandising, customer experience and marketing. Before joining the New York-based direct-to-consumer mattress brand in 2019, Arel acted as CEO of Fullbeauty Brands, a plus-size apparel company, where she led the company through a debt restructuring and put the company on the path to a digital transformation, Casper said in a news release. Prior to that, she served as the CEO of Quidsi, an Amazon company with 10 brands, including Diapers.com and Soap.com. Earlier in her career, Arel spent seven years with Gap Inc. where she held multiple positions and led a team of more than 12,000 employees and more than 220 stores. Before joining Gap, Emilie held various roles at Target Corp.
“Emilie and I have worked together toward this goal for a long time and her new responsibilities reflect our focus on prioritizing talent development across the company,” said Philip Krim, former CEO. “Emilie’s background and experience at world-class brands including Quidsi, Gap and Target will be of great benefit to Casper —she is a leader who will take bold steps and work across departments to advance our strategic initiatives by leveraging the resources she has available and motivating those around her.”
Commenting on her appointment, Arel said: “I am excited to take on the chief executive role at this time of change at Casper. Philip and the founding team disrupted the mattress industry by introducing a new type of shopping experience and built a beloved brand with award-winning products and approximately $500 million in annual sales. Under Durational, Casper will have financial flexibility to accelerate our growth plans, and I look forward to working closely with Durational and with all of Casper’s talented team members to deliver on the tremendous potential of this business in the months and years ahead.” (Learn more about Durational Capital Management’s acquisition of Casper Sleep.)
