Martin McClanan, who has been CEO of gifts cataloger/online retailer RedEnvelope for the past two years, will leave the San Francisco-based company on April 8. He will be replaced that day by Alison May, who is chief operating officer/acting chief financial officer of Gymboree Corp. May will also assume the title of president as well as of CEO. Former president Tom Bazzone left RedEnvelope in October 2001.
McClanan couldn’t be reached at press time. But spokesperson Hillary Locke says that his departure is “to move the company forward; to be profitable in the next year. It’s nothing personal.”
“Martin really loves the start-up stage of a company,” says Hilary Billings, chairman/chief marketing officer of RedEnvelope. “He was a tremendous asset to us in the past two years when we were at that young state of growth. He agreed with the rest of the board that the company was ready for a seasoned retail executive whose primary strength was in operations and finance.”