Wet Seal Names Bill Langsdorf CEO

Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based teen retailer Wet Seal Inc. on Tuesday severed ties with chief executive officer Ed Thomas, replacing him with Bill Langsdorf. Langsdorf is the former cfo of Irvine, Calif.-based action sports retailer Tilly’s Inc. and had been serving as an adviser to Wet Seal since November. He also takes on the titles of president, chief financial officer and secretary at the teen retailer. Thomas’ departure came with news that the company let go of interim cfo and secretary Thomas R. Hillebrandt and that directors Nancy Lublin, John Mills, Kenneth Reiss and Denna Varshavskaya resigned from the board of directors. The news follows private equity firm Versa Capital’s winning bid for Wet Seal in a bankruptcy auction last month in which it beat out B. Riley. The deal, which includes $7.5 million in cash, officially closed last week. Wet Seal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January following a tough set of years for many teen retailers that also pushed Delia’s Corp and Deb Shops to also seek bankruptcy protection as pressures mounted for their businesses. Wet Seal over the past few years has seen a number of false starts to turning its business in which it jumped from one turnaround strategy to

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