The Knot Worldwide Accelerates Innovation and Growth in Marketing and eCommerce with New Additions to Global Leadership Team

Four New Leaders Cement The Knot Worldwide’s Focus on Building a Global Brand and World Class eCommerce Experience Amidst Wedding Industry Resurgence

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Knot Worldwide, the global leader in digital wedding planning, announced today that four new vice presidents have joined the company to further drive innovation and growth through marketing and eCommerce—all powered by top tier talent across the globe. New hires include: Kiara Kempski, Vice President of Global Consumer Marketing; Sofia Serra, Vice President of Global Product & Lifecycle Marketing; Caryne Say, Vice President of B2B Marketing; and Stephanie Whitacre, Vice President of Merchandising eCommerce.

“I’m thrilled to welcome four new, talented individuals to The Knot Worldwide team; they will be key in building our business revenue momentum in priority areas of eCommerce and marketing as the industry bounces back and answers the pent up demand for weddings,” said Tim Chi, CEO of The Knot Worldwide. “Kiara, Sofia, Caryne and Stephanie bring a wealth of experience, impressive backgrounds and a proven track record of success in their respective specialties. With their leadership, we are uniquely positioned to deliver richer experiences to our couples and small business partners to serve our mission of providing the best all-in-one wedding planning solution.”

"Strengthening our leadership across marketing and eCommerce is key to our continued growth as the global leader in digital wedding planning,” said Emily Markmann, CHRO of The Knot Worldwide. “Strong, diverse leadership and thinking is the core of our business, and these four accomplished leaders reflect our company, customers and the global reach we are building."

Kiara Kempski, Vice President of Global Consumer Marketing, oversees consumer marketing efforts across The Knot Worldwide’s global portfolio of wedding brands, including The Knot, WeddingWire US, Bodas across Europe and Latam, Hitched in the UK and WeddingWire India. Kiara brings to The Knot Worldwide a rare background of marketing analytics and measurement experience with award winning brand storytelling. She joins The Knot Worldwide from Ancestry, where she was Head of Global Programming and Brand Media. Over her eight year time there, she oversaw content & media strategy, including investment and measurement for Ancestry's largest growth channels. In this role, she developed a global branded content engine leading to a Cannes Lion win, numerous Effies, Webbies, and most notably to an Emmy-nominated TV series. Her work helped to shape the family history and DNA category, and Ancestry's multi-billion-dollar subscription business valuation. In her final two years at Ancestry, Kiara also led the company's holistic Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy and initiatives.

Sofia Serra, Vice President of Global Product and Lifecycle Marketing, leads adoption and lifecycle strategy across the company’s portfolio of global wedding brands. Sofia’s experience includes building and growing product and marketing capabilities for tech startups in the mental wellness and food delivery spaces. Sofia was formerly a Global Head of Product Marketing at Facebook, responsible for the full inbound and go-to-market strategy of a portfolio of media products. Sofia also brings 11+ years at McKinsey & Company, focused on serving global consumer, entertainment and tech leaders across several marketing topics -- including product portfolio strategy and management, acquisition and lifecycle marketing, brand strategy, as well as revenue management & pricing. She also drove agile product development and agile marketing efforts with McKinsey Digital Labs, and was faculty at McKinsey Academy and Experience Studios. Sofia is currently an advisor to the Product Marketing Alliance and faculty at General Assembly. She is also a board advisor for journalism and performing arts organizations globally.

Caryne Say, Vice President of B2B Marketing, leads B2B revenue growth overseeing brand and demand generation efforts that help to drive new business within the largest wedding vendor marketplaces across The Knot and WeddingWire. As a top revenue-focused B2B marketing leader, Caryne has spent more than 15 years setting the strategic vision aligning demand generation, content marketing, branding, digital marketing, go-to-market development, and accelerating new business growth for fast growing tech companies from Silicon Valley to New York City including LivePerson, Grovo, Breather, and more recently, Cedar. Recognized both locally and globally for her knowledge of revenue-focused marketing, Caryne is also routinely invited to share her expertise with audiences within the tech industry around the world.

Stephanie Whitacre, Vice President of Merchandising eCommerce, oversees merchandising strategy for the company’s fastest growing eCommerce business —most notably The Knot Registry Store, The Knot Invitations and WeddingWire Invitations. Recent additions to The Knot Registry Store under Stephanie’s leadership include The Knot Experiences, more than 600 in-person experiences offered in more regions across the U.S. than any other major registry provider, plus home innovation brands like Havenly, Ring and Winc. With 15 years of experience in buying, planning and digital, she has a wealth of experience from a diverse set of retail companies including Bergdorf Goodman, Burberry, Bloomingdales and HBC. Stephanie worked most recently at HBC for Saks Off Fifth as the VP DMM of Women’s RTW. Within her time at Off Fifth she was instrumental in the growth of several new and emerging businesses, most notably taking the newly launched brand Karl Lagerfeld from $500k to over $15M in a three-year span, through exclusive product development. Stephanie is an active member of Chief, a private network of women executives focused on connecting and supporting women leaders making decisions and influencing change.

About The Knot Worldwide

With over four decades of expertise in the wedding industry, The Knot Worldwide is the largest global wedding planning company. The Knot Worldwide helps couples plan every aspect of their weddings, from finding inspiration and local wedding professionals to creating and managing all guest experiences, wedding registries and more through The Knot, WeddingWire, Bodas.net, Hitched.co.uk, WeddingWire.in, WeddingWire.ca, Matrimonio.com, Mariages.net and other brands. Having inspired and empowered more than 40 million couples to plan a wedding that’s uniquely them, The Knot Worldwide provides leading wedding marketplaces, personalized wedding websites, planning tools and registry services with its brands in 16 countries across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The Knot Worldwide also includes lifestyle brands The Bump for pregnancy and parenting, The Bash for bringing important celebrations to life with entertainment vendors, How They Asked for proposal inspiration and stories and more. The company has US offices in New York, New York; Washington, DC; Norwalk, Connecticut; Austin, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; and Portland, Oregon; and international offices in Barcelona, Spain; Galway, Ireland; Guangzhou, China; Gurgaon, India; and London, England.