Peloton, a specialist in home cycling, appointed William Lynch, former CEO at Barnes & Noble, as president.
Lynch joins Peloton after a career managing innovative and disruptive consumer technology companies. As the CEO of Barnes & Noble Inc., Lynch turned the bookseller into a leading retailer of content, digital media and reading devices. He oversaw the creation of the Nook devices and software and brought it to the consumer market, and also introduced other devices, including an Android color tablet and a touch e-reader. During his tenure, his team grew Nook sales to more than $1 billion in revenues in three years.
Prior to Barnes & Noble Inc., Lynch held executive positions at IAC, HSNi and Palm Computing, and most recently served as CEO at Savant Systems, a smart home technology company. As president of Peloton, Lynch will be responsible for helping the company scale its business and expand into new categories and markets. Lynch will manage all aspects of Peloton’s operations including sales, marketing, content, hardware, software and supply chain management, and will work closely with Peloton’s CEO and founder, John Foley, on all strategy, finance and legal matters.
“William is one of the most impressive leaders and operators I have ever had the pleasure of working with,” said Foley. “I know him. I trust him. I have seen him scale massive businesses, especially while we worked together at Barnes & Noble Inc. Beyond that, his extensive experience is unique, rare and perfect for Peloton: he deeply understands vertically-integrated ecosystems, multi-channel marketing including retail stores, hard-core technology environments, elevated consumer products brands, spirited tech-start-up cultures and running large publicly-traded companies.”
“I’ve been following Peloton since its inception, and am thoroughly impressed with how the company and John, have successfully created an entirely new category to the fitness experience, by bringing the power and motivation of a group class to the privacy and convenience of people’s homes,” said Lynch. “The unique selling proposition of Peloton is unmatched in the marketplace, confirmed by incredible consumer reactions to the products. I’m extremely excited to be joining Peloton as it continues to be a tech pioneer and company to be reckoned with.”
In his new role, Lynch will be based out of the company’s headquarters in New York City.
Photo courtesy Peloton
