(Bloomberg) -- WW International Inc. brought in a veteran of the digital media industry to replace the struggling weight-loss company’s outgoing financial chief.
Felicia DellaFortuna will become CFO of WeightWatchers at the start of 2025, moving over from Enthusiast Gaming Holdings, where she was chief financial officer, WW said Wednesday in a statement. She’ll replace Heather Stark, who will remain with WW through Dec. 27.
A longtime figure in the battle against obesity, WeightWatchers has been struggling to navigate a new business landscape dominated by safe, effective drugs made by Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. Former Chief Executive Officer Sima Sistani quit in September, just before the company said it would begin selling low-cost, compounded copies of Novo’s Wegovy for weight loss. WeightWatchers is now increasingly competing with online telehealth companies in the obesity space.
WW shares fell 3.2% in trading before US markets opened, and have lost 86% of their value this year through Tuesday’s close.
Prior to working at Enthusiast, DellaFortuna was CFO of online media company BuzzFeed. DellaFortuna helped make Buzzfeed “one of the first profitable pure-play digital media companies,” leading acquisitions such as the purchase of the HuffPost outlet, WW said in the statement. Enthusiast Gaming, based in Toronto, reported its first profitable quarter on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization on Nov. 14.
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