Board of Directors

A seasoned retail executive with decades of diverse and valuable experience, Satish Malhotra joined The Container Store on February 1, 2021 as Chief Executive Officer and President.

For the previous 21 years, Satish held various leadership roles at prestige beauty retailer Sephora Americas, most recently as Chief Retail Officer and Chief Operating Officer.  In this role, Satish was responsible for leading Sephora’s retail growth by expanding its in-store services and experiences, developing digitally enabled solutions and by growing its off-mall store locations.

Prior to that role, Satish served as Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for Technology, Supply Chain, Store Development, Legal, Strategy and Partnerships, including the Sephora inside JCPenney (SiJCP) business which now operates in over 600 stores. He also spent several years overseeing Sephora’s expansion into Canada and Latin America.

Before joining Sephora, Satish was a Transaction Services Senior Associate at PwC. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Throughout his career, Satish has excelled at developing and growing new sales channels, solving complex “back of the house” problems with innovative solutions, and attracting and developing high performing talent. Among his many career highlights: transforming Sephora’s IT department to a Center of Excellence within parent company LVMH, launching all of Sephora’s digital commerce properties (including website, mobile, social and CRM), strengthening Sephora’s supply chain to enable 98% of online orders to be received by consumers within two business days, developing an off-mall store concept which dramatically improved Sephora’s accessibility to its consumers, and led the efforts in creating Sephora’s purpose of “inspiring fearlessness”.

In 2020, he was presented with the Innovation Leadership Award from the World Retail Forum.

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Walter A. Haas School of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Satish has also completed the LVMH Inspiring Entrepreneurs Senior Executive Leadership Program.

Malhotra currently resides in Flower Mound, Texas, with his wife, two children and their Coton du Tulear. An avid Peloton rider, he clocked well over 11,000 minutes in 2020.

Jonathan D. Sokoloff has served on our Board of Directors since August 2007. Mr. Sokoloff is currently a Managing Partner with LGP, a private equity firm, which he joined in 1990. Before joining LGP, he was a Managing Director in Investment Banking at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Mr. Sokoloff also serves on the board of Shake Shack Inc., where he is also a member of the compensation committee, on the board of the private parent holding companies of Advantage Solutions, Inc., and Jetro Cash & Carry and on the board of private companies Union Square Hospitality Group, LLC, and Jo Ann Stores, Inc. Mr. Sokoloff previously served on the Board of Directors of Whole Foods Market, Inc., Top Shop/Top Man Limited, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc., Signet Jewelers Limited, and J. Crew Group, Inc. He co-chairs the Endowment Committee for Private Equity at his alma mater, Williams College. Mr. Sokoloff was selected to our Board of Directors because he possesses particular knowledge and experience in accounting, finance and capital structure, strategic planning and leadership of complex organizations, retail businesses and board practices of other major corporations.

Since 2014, Mr. Laday has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Fogo de Chão, where he leads the Accounting, Finance, IT and Supply Chain functions. In 2015, Mr. Laday was instrumental in the successful completion of Fogo de Chão’ s initial public offering on Nasdaq. He also helped navigate a go-private transaction in April 2018 when Rhône Capital acquired Fogo de Chão in an all-cash transaction valued at $650 million. Mr. Laday has held finance roles of increasing responsibility for a number of prominent brands prior to Fogo de Chão including Brinker International, FedEx Office, and American Airlines. In his last position at Brinker International as Vice President of International, Investor Relations, and Corporate Treasurer, Mr. Laday was instrumental in doubling the size of Brinker’s Internal Division, securing $250 million in public debt, and developing strategies to significantly improve operating margins. Mr. Laday received his BBA and MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Wendi Sturgis has served on our Board of Directors since August 2019. Ms. Sturgis currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of cleverbridge, Inc., a global billing solution provider for digital goods and services. Previously, Ms. Sturgis served as Chief Revenue Officer and then President of Lyte, Inc. from January 2021 to November 2021. Ms. Sturgis served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Yext, Europe at Yext, Inc., a New York based technology company operating in the area of on-line brand management, a position that she held from April 2019 to January 2021. Ms. Sturgis joined Yext in 2011, and held a variety of executive roles, including Executive Vice President of Sales and Services from August 2011 to December 2016 and Chief Client Officer from December 2016 to August 2019. Ms. Sturgis previously ran the North America Account Management team at Yahoo! Inc., where she was responsible for an 800-person organization and $1.4 billion in revenue. She has also held executive positions at Price Waterhouse, Oracle, Scient, Gartner and Right Media, and served as a director of Student Transportation of America, where she gained experience in cybersecurity leading the company’s annual cybersecurity risk review. Ms. Sturgis also serves on the board of directors of Sabre Corporation and of private company, Kustomer, Inc. She is also on the board of the Georgia Tech Foundation. Ms. Sturgis was selected to our Board of Directors because of her leadership experience in the technology, digital transformation and marketing fields.