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Having served as Bed Bath & Beyond‘s interim CEO since June, Sue Gove will now take on the permanent role. 

On Oct. 26, the Union-based retailer announced its board unanimously approved Gove as president and chief executive officer. Gove, who was an independent director on the company’s board and strategy committee chair before her interim appointment, will continue to serve on the board. 

“We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sue as chief executive officer. Sue is the best person to serve at the helm of Bed Bath & Beyond and continue leading the Company,” Harriet Edelman, independent board chair, said in a statement.  

“During her tenure as interim CEO, Sue took consequential actions to increase liquidity and establish the groundwork to improve customer loyalty, traffic, and market share. Her intense focus on cash, and expertise in managing working capital and liquidity are matched by a great operating mind and further complemented by a new leadership team that brings deep merchant, omni, and digital expertise in modern retailing,” Edelman continued.

Gove will be responsible for further implementing the company’s strategic plan, announced Aug. 31, which aims to strengthen the retailer’s financial positioning, increase customer engagement, drive traffic and recapture market share. 

That plan, however, also came with the announcement of the layoff of about 20% of Bed Bath’s workforce and the closure of 150 stores, including three in New Jersey in the initial round. 

Gove’s permanent appointment follows a tumultuous summer, including the June 29 leadership shakeup as well as the Sept. 2 death of Chief Financial Officer Gustavo Arnal, which New York authorities later ruled a suicide. 

The company named Laura Crossen, then-senior vice president of finance and chief accounting officer, to serve in the interim CFO position.   

Gove’s leadership 

Since taking the helm, Gove and the team have, among other actions: 

• Secured new financing, including an upsized $1.13 billion asset-backed revolving credit facility and a $375 million “first-in-last-out” facility; 
• Completed the company’s 12 million share at-the-market offering program and authorized a new $150 million program; 
• Initiated an exchange offer for the company’s outstanding senior notes; 
• Increased investments in well-performing national brands and discontinued several owned brands; 
• Accelerated strategic plans for buybuy BABY; 
• Reorganized company leadership, including naming a brand president for the Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY banners; 
• Strengthened supplier relationships, including with its first supplier summit, taking place Oct. 26. 

“At Bed Bath & Beyond, we have never been more strategically and culturally focused, and I remain dedicated to executing on our back-to-basics philosophy, accelerating our performance, and focusing on financial returns,” Gove said. 

“We have a significant opportunity ahead and we intend to regain our dominance as a preferred shopping destination.”