Destination Maternity Announces Two Key Executive Appointments - Chief Financial Officer and Chief Transformation Officer

Destination Maternity Corporation (NASDAQ:DEST), the world's leading maternity apparel retailer, today 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. Mr. Helkey is a seasoned, strategic executive with over 20 years of financial and operating experience. In his new role, Mr. Helkey will oversee the Company’s finance, accounting, IT, real estate, inventory management, sourcing, human resources, legal and warehouse/logistic departments.

Destination Maternity also announced it entered into a consulting agreement to engage Doug Goeke, to serve in a newly created role of Chief Transformation Officer, reporting directly to the Board of Directors, effective January 9, 2019. Mr. Goeke brings extensive financial, operational, and turnaround experience and will provide leadership and oversight of the Company’s multi-year strategic plan, Destination->Forward.

Commenting on the appointments of Dave Helkey and Doug Goeke, Marla Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Destination Maternity, stated, “We are pleased to have an executive of Dave’s caliber joining Destination Maternity. 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 excited to have Dave on board and look forward to the contributions he will make while managing the company’s strategic growth initiatives.”

Ms. Ryan, continued, “We are also pleased to bring Doug Goeke and his extensive international and domestic expertise leading company turnarounds to our leadership team. Doug has a vast amount of experience creating value through strategic performance improvements across business segments, which will be invaluable to his efforts to oversee and support the advancement of our multi-year strategic plan, Destination->Forward.”

Helkey named Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Helkey brings more than 20 years of financial and operating expertise to the role, most recently serving as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Things Remembered, a privately held omni-channel retail company with 440 stores in the U.S. 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 (NYSE: LB). Mr. Helkey started his career at E&Y as staff/senior accountant in audit. He holds a BSBA degree from The Ohio State University and is a Certified Public Accountant.