HSNi promotes Ethier to ceo of Cornerstone

-- Home Textiles Today, 10/5/2009 11:58:00 AM

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- Multichannel and multi-brand retailer HSN Inc. is promoting Mark Ethier to ceo of the company’s Cornerstone business segment.

Ethier served as evp and coo of HSNi and director of Cornerstone since 2004, responsible for all aspects of operations across HSN, HSN.com and Cornerstone. From 2001 to 2004, he was evp of operations at HSN. Ethier has been credited with leading the upgrade of the company's fulfillment capabilities and improving shipping times, customer service and product quality.

"Through strict financial and operational rigor, we have begun to see bottom line improvements in the Cornerstone business overall, despite ongoing sales challenges in the luxury home and apparel categories," said Mindy Grossman, HSNi ceo, to whom Ethier continues to report. "Mark has been instrumental in achieving this progress. We expect that having Mark focus his attention exclusively on Cornerstone will allow us to maximize the performance of these businesses."

The Cornerstone division encompasses eight home and apparel lifestyle brands, including Ballard Design, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, Grandin Road, Improvements, Smith+Noble, The Territory Ahead, and TravelSmith.