The Container Store adds Unicef executive to board, launches new closet line

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Caryl Stern will serve as the 11th board member for The Container Store.

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Danielle Abril

Staff Writer- Dallas Business Journal

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On the heels of launching the pilot of a new luxury closet line, The Container Store has added the president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to its board of directors.

Caryl Stern will take the Coppell-based retailer's 11th board seat, which was added upon her appointment. She will serve on the company's Audit Committee and the Culture and Compensation Committee of the Board.

The Container Store will pay her an annual retainer of $80,000, payable quarterly, and will offer her an initial grant of a stock option with a value equal to $100,000 and an annual grant of a stock option worth about $100,000. The compensation is standard for non-employee board members.

The company also offered Stern the option to purchase 9,276 shares of common stock priced at $16.84 per share on Monday.

In addition to UNICEF, Stern has three decades of nonprofit and education experience that include serving as the chief operating officer and senior associate national director of the Anti-Defamation League, the founding director of ADL's A World of Difference Institute and the dean of students at Polytechnic University.

She also has served on nonprofit boards including the United Nations International School, Mercy College and the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation. She currently sits on the boards of the We Are Family Foundation, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, the Seeds Academy and the Advisory Board to the WNBA.

The news comes just one day after the retailer launched its new closet line, TCS Closets, a collection of custom-built closet solutions.

The line debuted at the retailer's seven Dallas-Fort Worth stores starting Monday and is expected to be rolled out to the rest of the chain by the end of next year.

The unveil began at the flagship store on Northwest Highway and will roll out to the Plano Stonebriar and Southlake locations on Nov. 1, the Fort Worth and Arlington locations on Nov. 8 and the Galleria Dallas and Fairview on Nov. 15.

Danielle covers technology, retail, restaurants and hospitality for the Dallas Business Journal. Subscribe to our new TechFlash email newsletter.