eBay adds execs to board of directors
The online auction firm appoints two executives to its board of directors, one from Club Med and the other from Charles Schwab, as it looks to expand internationally.
San Jose, Calif.-based eBay said it appointed Club Med chief executive Philippe Bourguignon and Schwab chief information officer Dawn Gould Lepore to its board, bringing the tally of members up to seven.
"Philippe and Dawn bring new perspectives to eBay, strengthening our understanding of European and international consumer markets and helping us further develop our technology strategy," Meg Whitman, eBay chief executive, said in a statement.
The appointments come on the heels of numerous technical problems for eBay. The company suffered a number of outages in the past few months, causing frustration among its users and leading the company to install a new backup system.
eBay also is looking to expand internationally. In November 1999 the firm said it plans to test business-to-business auctions and would do so first in Germany.
"These board members will contribute their respective international and technology expertise to eBay as the company looks to expand operations into new geographies and creates a utility-like technology infrastructure for its worldwide community of traders," eBay said in a statement.
Club Med's Bourguignon previously worked for Disney, Euro Disney, Accor and Novotel. Lepore has been working at Schwab since 1983.
Others serving on eBay's board are as follows: Pierre M. Omidyar, founder and chairman of the board; Whitman, eBay president and CEO; Scott Cook, chairman of the executive committee at Intuit; Robert C. Kagle, general partner at Benchmark Capital Partners; and Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks.