Former Net-A-Porter chief Mark Sebba dies suddenly

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 25, 2018

Mark Sebba, who was CEO of Net-A-Porter through years of expansion, has died from a heart attack, aged 69. He passed away at his home in Crete, Greece, a spokesperson for the family said.

Sebba was the chief executive of the luxury shopping platform, founded by Natalie Massenet, for more than a decade, and retired from his role in 2014. More than 2,500 staff members put together a surprise celebration to mark his retirement, hailing the boss as the ‘Most loved CEO’ in a video that has been viewed nearly 1.3 million times on YouTube.

Net-a-Porter said in a statement: “He will be remembered by all of his colleagues and anyone whose life he touched as the very best of men.”

During his tenure as CEO, the shopping site was bought by Richemont in 2010 in a deal worth £225m, opened new sites such as the Outnet and Mr Porter, launched the Porter fashion magazine and acquired Shouke to expand into Asia and China.

Since then, the group has become a major player in the sector, valued at more than 5.3 billion euros after its merger with Yoox.

Natalie Massenet shared a photo with the former CEO on Instagram, saying: “I am shocked, grieving and heartbroken at the sudden loss of my friend Mark Sebba - mentor, father-figure and partner in building the Net-a-porter Group. For those of you fortunate enough to have known him we share an incredible loss - described by everyone as elegant, charming,kind, funny, generous, inspiring and humble he has left this world too soon. My love and prayers go out to his beautiful family.”

Since leaving Net-A-Porter, Sebba became chairman of Flowerbx, a director at plus-size e-commerce brand Eloquii and a board member at tech investment bank GP Bullhound.