Overview
Dawn Zier is an accomplished CEO and independent board director best known for engineering a remarkable turnaround of the iconic brand Nutrisystem (Nasdaq: NTRI). She has served on multiple public company and private equity-backed boards and currently serves as Board Chair for The Hain Celestial Group and Compensation Chair for Prestige Consumer Healthcare. Her breadth of industry experience spans health and wellness, consumer packaged goods, fintech, food, media, direct-to-consumer, and hospitality. She has broad global experience and has had responsibility throughout her career for businesses within North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.
As an executive, she has led enterprise-wide transformations that capitalized on high-impact opportunities to drive turnaround and growth. A marketer at heart with a passion for data and analytics, she has architected product innovation and marketing breakthroughs that created noteworthy industry firsts and enviable shareholder value. As a board director, she has extensive CEO succession and leadership assessment expertise and has navigated several activist situations and M&A opportunities from both the CEO and Director seat.
"Dawn is people-focused, but also highly technical. I tell her a lot, and she remembers it all, I don’t know how, and she somehow can project herself in the experience. It’s like she’s contextually in my meetings or understands the political nature and aspects that’s happening within them."
– Chief Marketing Officer, Public Financial Services Company
Career History
In addition to her work at The ExCo Group, Zier is Chair of the Board at The Hain Celestial Group (Nasdaq: HAIN) and serves on Prestige Consumer Healthcare (NYSE: PBH). Additionally, she serves as a board member of PE-backed Acorns, a leading fintech company, and is an advisor to Edison Partners, a growth equity investment firm. Her leadership and board experience afford her a deep understanding and appreciation for best practices and strong governance, future-focused planning, and engaged leadership.
During her six-year tenure as CEO of Nutrisystem, Dawn doubled revenues, increased operating income 7-fold, and delivered a 6-times increase in stock price. With her finger on the pulse of the consumer, she pursued a multi-brand strategy focused on digital transformation and innovation that drove dramatic customer growth and lifetime value. Foundational to her leadership and company success is her belief in the importance of company culture and the power of team to inspire high performance. Nutrisystem was recognized as one of Fortune’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, it was acquired by a public strategy, yielding strong shareholder returns.
Previously, Dawn held C-suite roles as President of International, President of Europe, President of Global Consumer Marketing, and President of North American Consumer Marketing at Reader’s Digest Association (now Trusted Media Brands), a data marketing and media company. She created successful transformative business models, integrated strategic acquisitions, and drove profit growth across all regions. Prior to Reader’s Digest, she worked for several years in the banking and telecommunications sectors.
Personal
Over the course of her career, Zier has been the recipient of numerous awards, including being recognized as a NACD Director 100, an EY Entrepreneur of The Year®, a member of Institutional Investor’s All-America Executive Team, and a member of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women. A sought-after thought leader, she frequently speaks at national conferences and major universities on future-focused leadership, corporate governance, shareholder activism, board readiness, personal branding, culture, and talent.
Zier has also been deeply involved in not-for-profit work, most recently chairing the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign in Philadelphia. She holds an MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Corporate Director Certification from Harvard.
She enjoys traveling, hiking, and spending time with her family.
