RH stock slipped 1.3% in premarket trading following the announcement that Steve Rouman, the company’s Senior Vice President of Real Estate, has resigned to join Crate & Barrel as Chief Real Estate & Development Officer.
Rouman was responsible for strategy, site selection, and deal and lease negotiation across RH’s real estate portfolio. He had served in the role for four years and this marked a return engagement - Rouman previously held the same position at RH from 2017 to 2020.
His resume includes senior retail real estate roles at Amazon, Apple, Levi Strauss & Co. and Gap Inc., and he began his career on the landlord side with JMB/Urban Retail Properties and Westfield Corporation. The move to Crate & Barrel is the most recent in a sequence of exits at RH, following the departures of Stefan Duban, Chief Gallery Officer, and Ryan Wagner, Western Region VP of Hospitality.
Analyst reaction
Analysts at Jefferies highlighted the significance of the overlapping departures. In their commentary they wrote: "Overlapping exits of leaders with meaningful tenure in key functions highlight business challenges ’under the hood'. We believe the velocity of recent turnover could impact growth ahead, presenting an obstacle to us getting constructive on the stock’s upward trajectory ahead."
Context and implications
The company’s real estate leadership turnover comes amid a cluster of senior-level changes. The direct factual points reported are the resignations and the market reaction - a measured premarket decline in RH shares - along with the Jefferies assessment raising concern that the pace of turnover could affect future growth prospects.
What is known and what is not
The publicly available details specify Rouman’s new title at Crate & Barrel, his responsibilities while at RH, his prior tenure periods with the company, and his earlier roles at several major retailers and on the landlord side. The reports do not provide additional commentary from RH or Crate & Barrel, nor do they specify operational changes tied to the departures beyond the facts outlined above.