Demos Parneros (born March 10, 1962) is an American businessman who was previously the chief executive officer of

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

and president of North American retail and online at

Staples Inc. Staples Inc. is an American office supply retail company headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. Founded by Leo Kahn and Thomas G. Stemberg, the company opened its first store in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 1, 1986. By 1996, it had r ...

Early life

Born in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, Parneros moved to New York City when he was nine years old. He graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

with a Bachelor of Science degree in management.

Career

Parneros began his career at

Macy's Inc. Macy's, Inc. (previously Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American holding company of department stores. Upon its establishment in 1929, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene' ...

and then held multiple management positions at Staples before joining Barnes and Noble in November 2016.

Staples

Parneros joined Staples in 1987 as general manager of its first store in New York City and worked in the company's human resources, marketing, merchandising and store operations divisions. In 2002, Parneros was appointed president of the company's U.S. Superstores and responsibility for over 1,000 locations. In 2012, Parneros was appointed president of Staples North American Stores’ 1,800 locations and the company's online business, Staples.com. Under Parneros, Staples launched its first omnichannel stores, customer kiosks that merged the company's retail and online product offerings.

KeyBank

Parneros served on the board of

KeyBank KeyBank is an American regional bank headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and the 27th largest bank in the United States. Organized under the publicly traded KeyCorp, KeyBank was formed from the 1994 merger of the Cleveland-based Society Corpora ...

from 2014 to 2018.

Barnes & Noble

Parneros was appointed chief operating officer of Barnes & Noble in November 2016. In April 2017, he was appointed CEO, with responsibility for all company operations, including brick-and-mortar stores, merchandising,

e-Commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

, publishing, IT systems and real estate. At the time, Barnes and Noble was searching for effective ways to compete with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

and strengthen its retail and digital Nook businesses. While the brick-and-mortar bookstore market stabilized, the company continued to experience sales and revenue declines. As part of Parneros’ turnaround strategy, Barnes & Noble designed and opened smaller store locations and refocused on book sales. In 2019, the company opened its first five prototype stores, half the size of the traditional stores, to align with its omnichannel sales approach. Parneros was terminated in July 2018 for alleged violation of company policies. Parneros subsequently sued Barnes & Noble for breach of contract and defamation. In October 2020, Barnes & Noble and Parneros agreed to amicably settle the case with all claims dropped.

Personal life

Parneros lives with his wife, Debbie, in Boston, Massachusetts. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parneros, Demos 1962 births American chief executives New York University alumni Living people