Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake is stepping down

By Zlati Meyer

April 13, 2021

Who are you wearing, er, who is your CEO?

At Stitch Fix, that won’t be Katrina Lake for much longer. The founder of the online personal styling service is stepping down, effective August 1, the company announced today.

She will become executive chairperson of the board, while also working on Stitch Fix’s social impact efforts, merchandising partnerships, and hiring.

Replacing Lake as CEO will be president Elizabeth Spaulding, who also will join the board of directors.

Lake founded Stitch Fix in 2011, when she was a student at Harvard Business School, and then took it public in 2017—the youngest woman at the time to do so, according to the San Francisco-based company. Today, the company has annual revenues of $1.7 billion with close to 4 million clients and 8,000 employees.

Spaulding is an alumna of two decades at Bain & Company. Her positions there included partner and global head and founder of the digital practice.

“The impact Elizabeth has already had, combined with the compelling future vision she’s mapped out and is leading us toward, make this the right time for a leadership transition that will usher in the next generation for Stitch Fix, for our business, our people, and our clients,” Lake said in a written statement.

Stitch Fix was a Fast Company Most Innovative Company in 2019.

In February, Brad Klingenberg, the company’s algorithms chief, left to become chief algorithms officer at Daily Harvest.

Stitch Fix stock closed at $49.49 today, down $1.25 or 2.46%.

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