Andrew R. Heyer
Chairman of the Board
Andrew R. Heyer is the Chairman of our Board of Directors. Mr. Heyer is a finance professional with over 35 years of experience investing the consumer and consumer-related products and services industries. He has deployed in excess of $1 billion of capital over that time frame and has guided several public and private companies as a member of their boards of directors. Mr. Heyer is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Mistral Equity Partners, a private equity fund manager founded in 2007 that invests in the consumer industry. Prior to founding Mistral, Mr. Heyer served as a Founding Managing Partner of Trimaran Capital Partners. Until 1995, Mr. Heyer was a vice chairman of CIBC World Markets Corp. and a co-head of the CIBC Argosy Merchant Banking Funds. Prior to joining CIBC World Markets Corp., Mr. Heyer was a Founder and Managing Director of The Argosy Group L.P. Prior to joining Argosy, Mr. Heyer was a Managing Director at Drexel Burnham Lambert Incorporated and, prior to that, he worked at Shearson/American Express. From 1993 to 2009 and from 2012 to 2019, he has served on the board of The Hain Celestial Group (Nasdaq: HAIN), a natural and organic food and products company. From 2016 to 2020, Mr. Heyer served as a director of XpresSpa Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XSPA), a diversified holding company. From 2017 to 2019, Mr. Heyer served as a director and President of Haymaker Acquisition Corp., which was acquired by OneSpaWorld Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: OSW) on March 19, 2019. Mr. Heyer served as a director and as President of Haymaker Acquisition Corp. III (Nasdaq: HYAC) from 2019 – 2022, a director of Tastemaker Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: TMKRU) from 2021 to 2023, a director of AF Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: AFAQU) from 2021 to 2023, and as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Haymaker Acquisition Corp. 4 (Nasdaq: HYAC) from 2023 to 2024. He serves on the board of directors of: Arko Corp. (Nasdaq: ARKO) since December 2020, and Biote Corp. (Nasdaq: BTMD). Mr. Heyer also serves on the boards of directors of several private companies, including Worldwise, a pet accessories business.
Jack Krause
Director
Jack Krause is a member of the Board of Directors of The Lovesac Company. Previously, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Lovesac from 2015 until November 2021. During those years the Lovesac brand achieved a sales CAGR of +37%, executed an IPO and achieved growing profitability. Prior to Lovesac, Mr. Krause served as President of Vitamin World, a division of NBTY. He also served as Senior Vice-President of Watch Station Global Retail and Skagen from 2011 to 2013. Mr. Krause also held the position of General Manager of Sunglass Hut North America from 2008 to 2010 along with other executive positions at Luxottica. Mr. Krause worked for 11 years at Bath and Body Works in roles of increasing responsibility leading to Senior Vice-President of Brand Development from 2004 to 2006. Prior to that he spent 10 years in brand management at Jergens and Marion Consumer Products. Mr. Krause has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Miami University.
John Grafer
Director
John Grafer is a member of our Board of Directors. Mr. Grafer is a partner at Satori Capital, a multi-strategy alternative investment firm founded on the principles of conscious capitalism. Mr. Grafer is a member of Satori’s investment committee, a board member of Accelerated Learning Solutions, Hobo, SunTree Snack Foods, Formulife, and Zorch International, a former board observer for Aspen Heights, and a former board member of California Products Corporation, Longhorn Health Solutions, and FWT. Prior to joining Satori in 2009, Mr. Grafer was Senior Vice President at Giuliani Partners, a principal investment and consulting firm founded by former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Prior to joining Giuliani Partners in 2003, Mr. Grafer was a member of the mergers and acquisitions group at Credit Suisse First Boston, a member of the proprietary trading group at J.P. Morgan Chase, and a team member at Ernst & Young, where he earned his C.P.A. Mr. Grafer has also assisted a family office with early stage investments in sustainably managed companies, including Honest Tea. Mr. Grafer is an elected member of the board of directors and executive committee of Americans For Fair Taxation® (FairTax®) and was formerly a first-round judge for the McCloskey Business Plan competition at the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Grafer received a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Sharon M. Leite
Director
Sharon Leite has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Omni Retail Enterprises since June 2024. Previously, she served as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Ideal Image from January 2023 to October 2023, and as the Chief Executive Officer of The Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. from August 2018 to January 2023. She also served as President, North America, for Godiva Chocolatier from October 2017 until August 2018. Prior to joining Godiva, from February 2016 until May 2017, Ms. Leite was the President of Sally Beauty — North America (NYSE: SBH), an international specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty products, with over 3,000 stores. Prior to joining Sally Beauty, from August 2007 until January 2016, Ms. Leite was the Executive Vice President of Sales, Customer Experience and Real Estate at Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR). In addition, Ms. Leite has held various executive leadership roles at Bath and Body Works (L Brands) as well as various sales and operations positions with other prominent retailers including Gap Inc. and The Walt Disney Company. Ms. Leite also served on the board of directors of Tandy Leather Factory, Inc., a specialty retailer and wholesale distributor of leather and leather-related products, from 2017 to 2022. She serves on the board of the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University. Ms. Leite attended Loyola University, Kent State University and Delgado College and has an M.B.A. from The Jack Welch Management Institute.
Vineet Mehra
Director
Vineet Mehra currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Chime, a financial technology company, where he oversees Chime’s growth initiatives across the U.S. in addition to developing impactful marketing and advertising initiatives. He was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 50 most influential CMOs in 2020, and Ad Week named him as one of their Top 20 Tech CMOs in 2019.
Previously, he was Chief Growth, Product, and Customer Experience Officer at Good Eggs, where he was responsible for driving brand growth plans. Before that, he was Global Chief Marketing and Chief Customer Officer for Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), where he laid out the vision and strategic direction for all of WBA’s marketing and omni-channel customer experience initiatives. Prior to WBA, Mr. Mehra was Global Chief Marketing Officer for Ancestry.com, the world's leading consumer genomics company, where he modernized the marketing organization and brought consumer genetics into the cultural mainstream. Prior to Ancestry.com, Vineet served in leadership roles at J&J, Novartis Consumer Health and P&G.
Mr. Mehra currently serves as Global Chairman of the Board for Effie Worldwide, and previously served on the Board of Directors of AdTheorent (Nasdaq: ADTH) from 2021 to 2024. Additionally, Mr. Mehra serves as Board Observer for Knotch and on the CMO Advisory boards of Spotify, WPP, Ad Week, and Ridge Ventures.
Mr. Mehra received a degree in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Walter F. McLallen
Director
Walter F. McLallen is a member of our Board of Directors. Mr. McLallen is a finance professional with over 25 years of leveraged finance, private equity and operations experience. Mr. McLallen has been the Managing Member of Meritage Capital Advisors, an advisory boutique firm focused on debt and private equity transaction origination, structuring and consulting, since 2004. Mr. McLallen has extensive board and organizational experience and has served on numerous corporate and non-profit boards and committees, with a significant historical focus on consumer products-related companies. Mr. McLallen served as a director of publicly traded Centric Brands Inc. (Nasdaq: CTRC), a lifestyle brands collective in the branded and licensed apparel and accessories sectors, from 2016 to 2020, and AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER), an aircraft leasing company, from 2015 to 2017. Since 2017, Mr. McLallen has served as a director of OneSpaWorld Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: OSW), a pre-eminent global provider of health and wellness services and products onboard cruise ships and in destination resorts around the world and, since June 2019, he has served as a director of Haymaker Acquisition Corp. II (Nasdaq: HYAC), a special purpose acquisition company. He also served on the boards of several consumer-focused private companies, including Timeless Wine Company, the producer of consumer luxury wine brands Silver Oak, Twomey and OVID; Worldwise, a consumer branded pet products company; adMarketplace, a search engine advertiser; and Frontier Dermatology Partners, a dermatology practice management company. Mr. McLallen is also a Founder and Co-Chairman of Tomahawk Strategic Solutions, a law enforcement and corporate training and risk management company. From 2006 to 2015, he was Vice Chairman of Remington Outdoor Company, an outdoor consumer platform he co-founded with a major investment firm. Mr. McLallen was formerly with CIBC World Markets from 1995 to 2004, during which time he was a Managing Director, head of Debt Capital Markets and head of High Yield Distribution. Mr. McLallen started his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert and was a founding member of The Argosy Group L.P. Mr. McLallen received a B.A. with a double major in Economics and Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Shawn Nelson
Chief Executive Officer, Director
Shawn Nelson founded Lovesac in 1998 and is currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of the Company and as a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Nelson is the lead designer of the Company's patented products and leads sourcing, creative, design, public relations, investor relations and culture. In 2005, Mr. Nelson won Richard Branson's "The Rebel Billionaire" on Fox and continues to participate in ongoing TV appearances. Mr. Nelson has a Master's Degree in Strategic Design and Management and is a graduate-level instructor at Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City. Mr. Nelson is also fluent in Mandarin.
Shirley Romig
Director
Shirley Romig is a member of our Board of Directors. Ms. Romig has two decades of experience in operationalizing growth strategies and leading transformational initiatives in complex consumer-oriented and technology organizations. Currently, she is the Chief Accelerator Investment Officer of Techstars, LLC, a global venture capital investment firm and leading pre-seed investor. Previously, Ms. Romig was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mixo Group, a digital creator platform for the $1.7 trillion food market through 2023. Prior to that, she served as Vice President with Lyft, leading Global Operations, East and Canada, from 2019 to 2022. From 2017-2019, Ms. Romig was the Group Vice President of Ancillary Operations at Equinox and led six lines of businesses within its fitness clubs. From 2016-2017, Ms. Romig was the Head of Retail Strategy for SapientRazorfish, a global digital agency. From 2013 to 2015, Ms. Romig was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy with HBC responsible for implementation of growth initiatives across Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5th, Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay in Canada. Ms. Romig also served as a Vice President for Saks Incorporated where she led the company’s omnichannel transformation work and launched Saksoff5th.com as well as numerous growth initiatives for Saks.com. Earlier in her career, Ms. Romig worked in equity research and digital and strategy consulting. Ms. Romig has served on the Board of Directors of MamaMancini’s Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: MMMB), since March 2023. Ms. Romig holds an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business and a Bachelor of Science from the McIntire School of Commerce, both at the University of Virginia.