September 3, 2015

By Marcellous L. Jones

Paris, France – In a shock move Nathalie Massenet, the founder of the e-commerce giant Net-à-Porter has resigned from her position of executive chairman of the company that she founded.

Massenet revolutionized the ubber high-end of fashion retailing when she founded the company in 2000. In the early years she supported the company with personal loans from her friends. Since then she has grown the company into the world’s leading luxury online empire thanks to her exquisite tastes as a “fashion curator”.

In a statement confirming her departure, Yoox said, “Following Natalie Massenet’s tendering of her resignation today as executive chairman of the Net-a-Porter Group, Ms. Massenet will not be a member of the board of directors of the new group which will result from the upcoming merger”.

Her announcement may leave some scratching their heads, while others may not be so surprised by the move. Since Richemont sold the UK-based retailer to Yoox.com in March 2015, storm clouds were quick to gather behind the scenes.

At the time of the announcement of the deal for a combined $1.5 billion, Massenet said that she would stay on chairman, while Yoox founder, Federico Marchetti, would assume the role of C.E.O. at the new group. But then in a May 2015 interview with the Financial Times, Marchetti stated in a particularly straight-forward manner, “The Yoox Net-a-Porter Group has only one boss”. And as he raised his hand as he went on to say, “And that’s me”.

Upon selling her stake in the group, Massenet will walk about with a reporter $153 million dollars (100 million pounds).