Zooplus strengthens its team

Zooplus, Europe’s leading online platform for pet requisites, has announced the appointment of Alejandro Bethlen as chief merchandising officer and Jim Cruickshank as chief product officer. Both will become members of the Zooplus executive committee in their new roles.

As chief merchandising officer, Bethlen will take care of developing the Zooplus brand portfolio in future along with supplier relations and procurement. In this capacity he will be responsible for international accounts, local champion brands and own brands for food, accessories and services. He has extensive international management experience in the categories of fast-moving consumer goods and e-commerce, including with Procter & Gamble, where he oversaw a number of mainstream brands in the USA and Latin America, and at Amazon. At the latter, he was general manager for Amazon Flex Europe & Asia, the corporation’s last-mile delivery service. Before joining Zooplus, Bethlen was CEO of The Bouqs Company, an online florist delivery service in the USA.

Cruickshank, chief product officer, heads the product division and is responsible with his team for transforming the company’s customer platform, shaping the Zooplus user experience and developing all products and interfaces with a clear focus on customer orientation. He has over 20 years’ experience in the management of digital products and was latterly VP of global digital development & retail technology at Pandora. Prior to that, he worked as global director of digital product & UX for Marks & Spencer in the UK. In a previous position as director of product management at Microsoft, he also led the product teams for Bing, MSN Shopping and Travel.