Dive Brief:

• Blue Apron announced Thursday its chief financial officer, Randy Greben, plans to resign from the meal kit company, effective Oct. 17. 
• Blue Apron said Greben has accepted another role at an unnamed company. Blue Apron has appointed Mitchell Cohen to serve as interim CFO after Greben exits until a replacement is found. Cohen is an outside hire, according to a company spokesperson. 
• Separately, Peter Faricy, a member of Blue Apron’s board of directors, plans to resign effective Oct. 15, according to an 8-K filing. 

Dive Insight:

When Blue Apron announced Greben’s arrival in January 2021, the company noted his more than 20 years of finance and e-commerce operations experience, which included “a record of implementing strategic growth and scaling initiatives.”

Before Blue Apron, Greben was senior vice president and CFO of Ann Inc., a specialty apparel retail chain that includes the Ann Taylor, Loft and Lou & Grey brands. While there, Greben headed up several new business activations for Ann Inc.’s brands and also oversaw the strategy implementation for multiple new business ventures, including the omnichannel launch for factory and outlet stores, and a digital loyalty program.

Prior to that, Greben was CFO and general manager at Quidsi, which was a subsidiary of Amazon.com. Blue Apron noted in its hiring announcement that Greben “helped develop a business strategy to drive growth and profitability” while at Quidsi.

Greben also previously worked for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Tesco's failed effort to crack the U.S. grocery market.

At Blue Apron, Greben succeeded Tim Bensley, who stepped down from the CFO role at the end of 2020 after two and a half years at the company. 

“Randy has played an important role at Blue Apron as we developed our new strategy to pursue growth alongside a path to profitability,” Blue Apron’s President and CEO Linda Findley said in the announcement of his upcoming departure.

Findley noted that Cohen, while temporarily filling the CFO position, will help Blue Apron continue to execute its strategy, unveiled in May, to achieve adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization profitability in 2023 and positive free cash flow in 2024.

The meal kit company said Cohen has more than 30 years of financial, operations and general business experience and is a “highly experienced” CFO. Blue Apron has tapped Spencer Stuart to conduct the search for its next CFO. 

Faricy, who joined Blue Apron’s board in October 2020 and is CEO of SunPower, is departing just two days before Greben. The filing noted that Faricy’s resignation is “not the result of any dispute or disagreement with the Company, the Company’s management or the Board on any matter relating to the operations, policies or practices of the Company.”