WHP Global Board of Directors
Yehuda Shmidman
CHAIRMAN & CEO
For more than a decade, Yehuda Shmidman has played a lead role in deploying more than $3 billion of institutional capital into acquiring, growing and monetizing global consumer brands including TOYS“R”US, MARTHA STEWART and PEANUTS.
He currently serves as Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO of WHP Global, a leading New York based brand management firm backed by Oaktree Capital. WHP Global’s brand portfolio generates approximately $4 billion in annual retail sales, and includes JOE’S JEANS, ANNE KLEIN, JOSEPH ABBOUD, LOTTO, TOYS“R”US and BABIES“R”US. WHP Global is also parent to WHP+, a turnkey e-commerce platform, and WHP SOLUTIONS, a sourcing agency based in Asia.
Yehuda has served on multiple public and private boards, both commercial and nonprofit, and angel invests from time to time. He currently serves as an active board member and executive committee member of the Fashion Scholarship Fund.
Fortune Magazine and Crain’s New York both included Yehuda in their prestigious “40 Under 40” lists, and multiple universities – including Columbia University, NYU Stern School of Business and Fordham Law School – have featured Yehuda as a guest lecturer to deliver insights into the future of consumer brands and the retail industry.
Yehuda holds a B.A. degree magna cum laude from Yeshiva University in New York.
Thomas Casarella
CO-FOUNDER & BOARD MEMBER
Thomas Casarella is a Managing Director at Oaktree Capital Management. Prior to joining Oaktree, he served as Deputy Chief Restructuring Officer at the United States Department of the Treasury. Before that, Mr. Casarella was a member of the Private Equity group at Brookfield Asset Management, following earlier career roles Lazard and Goldman Sachs. He is a board member of Boardriders, Crossroads Building Supply and Kondaur Capital Management, Techstyle Fashion Group, and WHP Global. Mr. Casarella is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Children’s Bureau. Mr. Casarella holds an A.B. degree summa cum laude from Bowdoin College, an M.A. degree in economics from Oxford University, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is also a CFA charterholder.
Hank Sneddon
BOARD MEMBER
Hank Sneddon is a Vice President at Oaktree Capital Management and a board member of WHP Global. Prior to joining Oaktree, he was a member of the Restructuring & Special Situations group at PJT Partners. Mr. Sneddon holds an A.B. in Mathematics from Harvard College.
Christopher Pucillo
BOARD MEMBER
Christopher Pucillo is President, Chief Investment Officer, and Founder of Solus Alternative Asset Management LP. Solus is a multi-billion dollar SEC-registered, independent investment management company overseeing investments on behalf of institutional investors. Mr. Pucillo founded Solus in 2007 after more than a decade of high yield, leveraged loan and distressed investing. Prior to Solus, he served as Head of Hedge Fund Strategies at Stanfield Capital Partners.
Mr. Pucillo began his career at Bankers Trust where he was responsible for the structuring and negotiation of leveraged loans and helped establish the firm’s high yield loan trading business. He went on to serve as Head of High Yield Loan Trading at Morgan Stanley and was instrumental in launching its leveraged loan effort. Mr. Pucillo was one of the four founding members of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association and formerly served as an Executive Committee Member.
Mr. Pucillo is a board member of Bristow Group, Next Wave, and WHP Global. Mr. Pucillo received a BA in Economics from Lafayette College in 1989, and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.
WHP+ Advisory Board
Andy Dunn
Andy Dunn co-founded the menswear brand Bonobos in 2007 and served as the company’s CEO for ten years. Built on a pair of better-fitting men’s pants, Bonobos was the first digitally native, direct-to-consumer brand created in the US. The company pioneered both the digital approach to brand building and the reinvention of physical retail with its experiential guideshops. In 2017, Walmart acquired Bonobos for $310 million. Andy served as Walmart’s SVP of digital brands for three years following the deal. As an angel investor and through the seed fund he co-founded, Red Swan, Andy has backed eighty startups over the last ten years. Andy’s focus has been on zeitgeist changing consumer companies with notable investments in Warby Parker, Harry’s, Away, Glossier, Hinge, Alula, Real, and Ethena. A new dad, Andy is Chairman at Monica + Andy, an organic and sustainable baby apparel company where his sister Monica Royer is founder and CEO. Andy majored in Economics & History at Northwestern University. He began his career at Bain & Company and in private equity before earning an MBA from Stanford.
Todd Lutwak
Todd Lutwak is the Senior Vice-President of Platform & Business Development at ServiceChannel. Prior to his current role, Todd was a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he led the Consumer Market Development team, and focused on helping portfolio companies define, build, and implement go-to-market programs. Before joining Andreessen Horowitz, Todd was the Vice-President of Selling at eBay, where he was responsible for the selling experience including strategy, pricing, seller marketing, daily deals, and other seller acquisition, development, and retention programs. In addition to his MBA degree from The Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Todd has a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.
Erinn Murphy
Erinn Murphy is a managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Sandler covering global fashion and lifestyle brands. Murphy was raised in the Middle East and is passionate about international markets and has a strong affinity for languages with competencies in both French and Arabic. Murphy joined Piper Sandler in January 2005 as an associate analyst in the retail sector. In December 2008, she expanded her international experience by joining ExxonMobil's gas & power marketing group as a natural gas negotiator and a senior supply/demand planner. Murphy re-joined Piper Sandler in 2011. In 2013, she was recognized by Institutional Investor as a “Rising Star” on the All-American Research Team. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics and French from Calvin College.
Jameel Spencer
Jameel Spencer has built businesses for Shaquille O’Neal, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Simpson over the last 25 years.
In 2018, he launched Writeful Place to script narratives for personalities, brands, and businesses looking to realize unexploited revenue potential.
Rick Watson
Rick Watson is the CEO and Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting, LLC, a boutique strategic eCommerce consultancy based in New York City. He provides advice and guidance to firms across the eCommerce industry, primarily in the areas of Direct-to-Consumer operation build-out for investors and the C-Suite, B2B marketing for software and service firms, and strategy regarding eCommerce marketplaces.