FREEPORT, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Come January, a new CEO will be heading up L.L. Bean and for the first time, he's not from within the company.
Steve Smith works in China for Yihaodian, an online grocery business owned by Walmart. "I'm really comfortable in the physical retail world in omni and multichannel, and those are all the areas where bean is growing," said Smith on Wednesday.
The outdoor enthusiast started out in the northeast, spending time at Resort Sports Network in Portland and Hannaford Supermarkets.
Smith's two daughters were born in Maine before his family moved overseas. He says the position with L.L. Bean was the perfect chance to come home.
"I interviewed with all the family members and you get a real sense for the ownership and the importance of the culture and values of the Gormans and the Beans on the business. It's a really important brand, it's a local economy to the state, and being CEO is being a great brand steward and there's huge pressure to that."
Shawn Gorman, L.L. Bean's chairman of the board, said, "I've gone on record saying I wanted to hire someone from within, but very quickly after meeting Steve we started calling him the internal external. His values were so in line with the Bean values it was as if he worked at Beans in a former life."
Smith will replace Chris McCormick, who plans to retire in January.
