Sears Holdings appoints New York Mets executive to board of directors

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — The parent company of Sears and Kmart has elected an executive from the New York Mets to its board of directors.

Sears Holdings announced the appointment of Mets VP player development and amateur scouting Paul DePodesta. His election to the board brings the total number of board members to eight.

"We are pleased to add the strong analytical skills and talent assessment acumen of Paul DePodesta to our board of directors," Sears Holdings chairman Edward Lampert said. "As Sears Holdings continues the work of transforming and strengthening our company, we look forward to his leadership and contributions. Mr. DePodesta's ability to scrutinize data and use it to assess tamest and drive execution makes him ideally suited to join our board."

Though DePodesta's background is in baseball recruitment, the company said his "unique approach" to assembling teams has "transformed how teams evaluate, measure and value talent." He previously was EVP of the San Diego Padres and EVP and general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, following executive positions with the Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians.