SYRACUSE — TCGplayer, an online store for collectible trading-card games and more, has added a chief supply chain officer. Kristin Bauer started her duties Sept. 27, per a company news release. In this newly created role, Bauer is responsible for advancing TCGplayer’s end-to-end supply-chain strategy, including overseeing its fulfillment-center operations in Syracuse. Bauer joins TCGplayer […]
SYRACUSE — TCGplayer, an online store for collectible trading-card games and more, has added a chief supply chain officer.
Kristin Bauer started her duties Sept. 27, per a company news release.
In this newly created role, Bauer is responsible for advancing TCGplayer’s end-to-end supply-chain strategy, including overseeing its fulfillment-center operations in Syracuse.
Bauer joins TCGplayer from Framingham, Massachusetts–based TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX), where she helped lead the company’s logistics strategy.
She brings to TCGplayer nearly two decades of experience developing and implementing strategies for omnichannel retailers, including overseeing a 2 million square-foot distribution center at Target Corporation.
“Kristin represents a new era of leaders who have grown up leveraging technology and data to impact and accelerate organizations,” Chedy Hampson, founder and CEO of TCGplayer, said in the release. “She [brings] to TCGplayer the experience and innovation required to scale our supply chain and ensure our fulfillment operations continue to be our strategic differentiator. I am confident that Kristin is the right leader to take our fulfillment services to the next level.”
“I am thrilled to join TCGplayer as chief supply chain officer at such an exciting time in the company’s history,” Bauer said. “I look forward to working with Chedy and the entire TCGplayer team to enhance our supply chain strategy, better serve our customers and strengthen TCGplayer’s position in the hobby collectibles market.”
Bauer joins TCGplayer a few months after the company announced that it has secured $35 million in strategic financing from Vista Credit Partners, a subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners. With the financing, the local firm seeks to support its “continued rapid growth” and upcoming expansion into multiple new hobby-collectible categories, including sports cards and comic books.
TCGplayer also recently doubled its physical footprint in downtown Syracuse and expanded its workforce to more than 500 employees. It also created and filled several senior-leadership positions, including its first-ever chief people officer, chief marketing officer, and chief product officer.
“Our fulfillment center continues to be TCGplayer’s strategic differentiator,” Hampson said. “It has tripled in size over the past year, helped to establish TCGplayer as the industry’s go-to card authenticator, and transformed the way we’re able to serve our customers.
The CEO says he sees no signs of slowing down as he looks ahead. “In fact, the fulfillment center is poised for imminent growth as we expand our offerings and break into new hobby collectible categories. It has never been more important that we ensure we take our home-grown scrappiness and pair it with the most innovative minds in the country. Under Kristin’s leadership, I believe we will be best positioned to do just that and capitalize on the many growth opportunities ahead,” Hampson said.
