Secret Sales promotes Fiona Lay to chief trading officer

Secret Sales, the marketplace for fashion and beauty brands has announced the promotion of Fiona Lay to chief trading officer.

The company said in a release that Lay’s promotion comes only a year after joining the Secret Sales team and will have her overseeing the entirety of global trading, live seller business development, onsite merchandising and design as well as managing an internal team of 35.

Now sitting on the executive board, Lay leads the charge for the other female employees at Secret Sales who make up 59 percent of employees, with 40 percent of head of management teams being women.

Commenting on Lay’s new role at Secret Sales, Chris Griffin, CEO of the company said: “Fiona is without a doubt the perfect fit for the role with her invaluable and varied digital experience. As we look set to achieve aggressive growth this financial year despite a challenging retail environment, she will play a central role in fuelling this.”

The company added that Lay will be instrumental in driving Secret Sale’s 100 percent growth target, particularly when it comes to enabling the team in maximising the use of data to deliver on what the customer wants and ensure brands and retailers on the platform are getting good sell through with strong margins.

“I am extremely energised to be stepping into this new role at Secret Sales. Having the opportunity to really get into the weeds of our data to further understand what is driving our business, how we’re going to amplify it is something I’m very excited about,” added Lay.

Formerly digital director at Secret Sales, as well as digital and trading director at Debenhams, Lay has over 25 years’ retail experience spanning beauty, womenswear, sports and menswear.