Faire is on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to chase their dreams and reimagine the future of retail. That’s why today we are thrilled to announce that Faire has hired Lauren Cooks Levitan as our first Chief Financial Officer.

Lauren brings more than 20 years of strategic, financial, and operational experience at the most transformative brands in retail to Faire; most recently serving as the CFO at Fanatics, the global leader in licensed sports merchandise. She’s also a passionate advocate of women-owned businesses and embodies each of our core values as an inspiring leader.

Throughout her career, Lauren has played a critical role in the evolving retail landscape. In her role as CFO at Fanatics, she oversaw accounting, financial planning, strategic analysis, and investor relations from 2015 through 2019. Under her direction, Lauren drove ongoing success across all divisions of the company, directly contributing to the brand’s substantial growth and diversification during those years. She helped them secure multiple financing rounds including equity stakes from the NFL and MLB, and oversaw the integration of six strategic acquisitions. As a result, Fanatics is a leader in ecommerce and licensed sports apparel.

Before Fanatics, Lauren co-founded and served as the Managing Director at Moxie Capital LLC, a private equity firm that specialized in advising consumer-facing businesses in the wholesale, retail, and e-commerce industries. Earlier in her career, as a Managing Director at Robertson Stephens, Lauren was the first equity analyst to apply retail industry experience to the then-emerging online retail channel. She also built the consumer retail franchise of Cowen & Co., where she also served as Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst. Lauren also has prior experience in store management at Crate & Barrel, as a merchandise manager at the Gymboree Corporation, and in equity capital markets at Goldman Sachs.

Lauren is a long-time advocate for women-owned businesses and women in leadership. She’s served on the Advisory Committee of the Stanford GSB’s Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) and served as the Co-Chair of the Duke University Northern California Women’s Forum. And, since 2016, she has served on the board of directors for e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE: ELF) as an Audit Committee member. Her expertise and passion for growing thriving businesses is an asset we are delighted to share with our community of makers and retailers — many of which are women-owned and founded.

Lauren joins Faire after a period of remarkable growth for our company. Over the last two years, our marketplace has grown to serve more than 45,000 local retailers and 6,000 of the world’s best makers — and we’re just getting started. As one of the most sought-after experts in retail, Lauren is uniquely suited to help us strengthen and sustainably scale our company so that we can continue to empower entrepreneurs to chase their dreams for years to come.

Join us in welcoming Lauren Cooks Levitan to Faire!

To stay up to date on the latest Faire hires, job opportunities, and updates on the future of retail, visit Faire.com/careers or follow Faire on LinkedIn.