Revolving Door: Design Within Reach Hires John Edelman as New CEO

We’ve been following Design Within Reach for years now, covering both the lows, like voluntarily de-listing off of Nasdaq and sale rumors, to the highs (which either haven’t been nearly as numerous or maybe just not as juicy), like the launch of DWR: Kitchen. Most recently, Stephanie talked to writer Jeff Chu about his popular story covering the company’s rise and fall. Now we continue with the news that, after former head of the company, Ray Brunner, mysteriously departed, the company has hired John Edelman as their new president and CEO. Edelman comes from a Knoll subsidiary, Edelman Leather, where he has served as CEO for the past six years. DWR has also hired Edelman’s right hand man at his former company, John McPhee, to become the COO. We don’t envy the two coming in, given all the recent press (and news for that matter), making it seem like DWR is an inevitable sinking ship, but sometimes heads of companies love this sort of challenge and are actually able to pull it off. Granted, that’s what we said when Ken La Honta left as CEO back in 2006, but maybe things will be different. Time to show what you’ve got, fellas.

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