Destination Maternity announces appointment of two senior executives

Destination Maternity Corporation has announced the appointment of Dave J. Helkey to the position of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, reporting to CEO Marla Ryan, effective January 21, 2019. Additionally, the company entered into a consulting agreement with Doug Goeke, to serve in a newly created role of Chief Transformation Officer, reporting directly to the board of directors, effective January 9, 2019.

Commenting on the appointments of Dave Helkey and Doug Goeke, Marla Ryan said in a statement: “We believe Dave’s experience and successful track record in retail, both online and in store, along with his operations management and capital markets experience make him ideally suited to fill the role of CFO and COO. We are also pleased to bring Doug Goeke and his extensive international and domestic expertise leading company turnarounds to our leadership team.”

Dave Helkey named CFO and COO, Dug Goeke appointed CTO

Helkey, the company said, is a seasoned, strategic executive with over 20 years of financial and operating experience. In his new role, Helkey will oversee the company’s finance, accounting, IT, real estate, inventory management, sourcing, human resources, legal and warehouse/logistic departments. Goeke, the company added, brings extensive financial, operational, and turnaround experience and will provide leadership and oversight of the company’s multi-year strategic plan, Destination->Forward.

Helkey most recently served as the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Things Remembered, a privately held omni-channel retail company with 440 stores in the US and Canada. At Things Remembered, he oversaw the finance, business innovation and fulfillment center/warehouse departments, amongst others. He was also responsible for implementing a real estate strategy to grow website sales and lower store footprint and oversaw a robust restructuring plan with creditors and advisors. Previously, he was the chief financial officer of two health care companies and worked in the finance department of Limited Brands. Helkey started his career at E&Y as staff/senior accountant in audit.

“I look forward to building on the significant progress that has already been made positioning the company for profitable and sustainable growth and positively contributing to the company's strategic plan, Destination->Forward,” added Helkey.

Most recently, Goeke was the senior vice president and general manager of support services North America at Babcock International Group plc. Prior to this, Goeke held positions as president, deputy president, managing director, and chief financial officer in various divisions of Gategroup Holding LTD, where he was also a member of the Gategroup Executive Management Board. In these roles, he has had P&L responsibility for divisions having annual revenues of 200 million dollars to 900 million dollars. Earlier in his career, Goeke held leadership positions at Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. and earned his CPA at Arthur Andersen LLP.

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