CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) today announced that Valerie Mosley, Chairwoman and CEO of Valmo Ventures, LLC, and Helen Vaid, Global Chief Customer Officer for Pizza Hut, have been appointed to the Board of Directors, effective April 6.
The company also announced that interim Chief Financial Officer Melissa Thomas will assume the role on a permanent basis, effective immediately.
“Both Valerie and Helen are accomplished executives who bring valuable perspective and will help us accelerate our strategy,” said Ted Leonsis, chairman of Groupon’s nominating committee. “Valerie brings extensive expertise as an investor, and Helen has significant digital experience with some of the world’s largest companies. We look forward to working with these two new independent directors.”
Mosley is the Chairwoman and CEO of Valmo Ventures, LLC, a Massachusetts-based advisory and investment firm she founded in 2012. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager and Partner at Wellington Management Company, as well as in other investment and banking roles.
Vaid currently serves as Global Chief Customer Officer for Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., where she is responsible for leading the company’s digital and in-restaurant customer experience efforts, as well as the brand’s e-commerce technology and operations business outside the U.S. Prior to joining Pizza Hut in 2016, Vaid served in technology-focused executive roles at Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard.
The additions bring Groupon’s Board to 10 members, nine of whom are independent. Mosley and Vaid will be independent directors and will stand for re-election at Groupon’s next Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
Thomas joined Groupon in 2017 as vice president of Commercial Finance and currently also serves as Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer. Previously, she was vice president of Finance at Surgical Care Affiliates and spent nearly nine years at Orbitz Worldwide in a variety of positions including vice president of Finance. She has served as interim CFO since August 2019.
“I am thrilled that Melissa will continue to lend her leadership and expertise to our global Finance function,” said CEO Rich Williams. “She’s already made a tangible impact in the role, and the rest of the senior management team and the Board of Directors look forward to continuing to work with her.”
About Groupon
Groupon (www.groupon.com) (NASDAQ: GRPN) is a local experiences marketplace that brings people more ways to get the most out of their city or wherever they may be. By enabling real-time mobile commerce across local businesses, live events and travel destinations, Groupon helps people find and discover experiences––big and small, new and familiar––that make for a full, fun and rewarding life. Groupon helps local businesses grow and strengthen customer relationships––resulting in strong, vibrant communities. To learn more about Groupon’s community-building efforts, please visit community.groupon.com.
Note on Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained in this release that refer to plans and expectations for the next quarter, the full year or the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and our objectives for future operations. The words "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "continue" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward looking statements largely on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability to execute, and achieve the expected benefits of our go-forward strategy, including our planned exit from the Goods business; volatility in our operating results; execution of our marketing strategies; retaining existing customers and adding new customers; challenges arising from our international operations, including fluctuations in currency exchange rates, legal and regulatory developments and any potential adverse impact from the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, retaining and adding high quality merchants; our reliance on email, internet search engines and mobile application marketplaces to drive traffic to our marketplace; cybersecurity breaches; reliance on cloud-based computing platforms; competing successfully in our industry; providing a strong mobile experience for our customers; maintaining and improving our information technology infrastructure; our voucherless offerings; claims related to product and service offerings; managing inventory and order fulfillment risks; litigation; managing refund risks; retaining and attracting members of our executive team; completing and realizing the anticipated benefits from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic investments; lack of control over minority investments; compliance with domestic and foreign laws and regulations, including the CARD Act, GDPR and regulation of the Internet and e-commerce; classification of our independent contractors or employees; tax liabilities; tax legislation; protecting our intellectual property; maintaining a strong brand; customer and merchant fraud; payment-related risks; our ability to raise capital if necessary and our outstanding indebtedness; global economic uncertainty; our common stock, including volatility in our stock price; our convertible senior notes; and our ability to realize the anticipated benefits from the hedge and warrant transactions. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties, we urge you to refer to the factors included under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be obtained by visiting the company's Investor Relations web site at investor.groupon.com or the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. Groupon's actual results could differ materially from those predicted or implied and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although Groupon believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither Groupon nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements reflect our expectations as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
