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Snap Nominates Glossier's Poppy Thorpe to Replace Mitch Lasky as Director

Snap Nominates Glossier's Poppy Thorpe to Replace Mitch Lasky as Director

(Bloomberg) -- Longtime Snap Inc. director Mitch Lasky, a Benchmark Capital general partner, is leaving the board and the company has nominated Poppy Thorpe, head of brand marketing at the makeup company Glossier, to replace him.

Lasky, a board member for more than five years, decided not to stand for re-election, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. His departure isn’t based on any disagreement with Snap management, the company said in a statement, praising his “incredible counsel from our very early days.” Benchmark was an early investor in Snap and its biggest financial backer when the company went public last year.

Thorpe’s background in advertising and brand development, especially with the use of social media for direct-to-consumer Glossier, will provide “a unique perspective that we think will be invaluable as we continue to grow,” Snap said. Before Glossier, Thorpe managed brands and formulated social-media strategy over a decade for a variety of firms.

Snap’s shares have declined 7 percent this year on slowing revenue and user growth in the face of competition from Facebook Inc.’s Instagram after a redesign of the Snapchat mobile photo-sharing app. Analysts have soured on the Los Angeles-based company, with 11 “sell” recommendations and 18 “holds” among 35 ratings compiled by Bloomberg.

Thorpe, 33, will likely be elected to the board at its August meeting, since Snap’s co-founders hold the majority of the voting power at the social media company. Her appointment will help continue a trend of adding women and minorities to open board slots. In the 2017 proxy season, most of the open seats were given to those underrepresented groups for the first time, according to executive recruiting firm Spencer Stuart, which has tracked board composition for decades. She’ll be the second woman on Snap’s board. Joanna Coles, the chief content officer of Hearst Magazines, who joined in 2015.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Molly Schuetz

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