Former Net-A-Porter CEO Mark Sebba dies at the age of 69

Mark Sebba, the former chief executive of Net-A-Porter.com, has passed away while on holiday in Crete - he was 69.

Sebba, who was CEO of the pioneering London-based business from 2003-2014, is understood to have suffered a heart attack.

Net-A-Porter.com founder Dame Natalie Massenet has in the past described Sebba as her "greatest ally" and together the pair shook up the luxury market and paved the way for a booming e-commerce industry in a sector that many said would never adopt it.

Under Massenet and Sebba, Net-A-Porter launched an off-price business in the The Outnet, a menswear site in Mr Porter and moved into publishing with Porter magazine, as well as being leaders in mobile innovation. The business was merged with Yoox to create Yoox Net-A-Porter Group in 2015.

Sebba stood down in 2014 and Massenet staged an emotional farewell to him on his last day in the office. The video of the event, set to Aloe Blacc's "The Man", went viral and has clocked up almost 1.3m views on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5VQlBENB8

After leaving Net-A-Porter, Sebba continued to support entrepreneurial businesses becoming chairman of Flowerbx and an adviser to plus-size e-commerce brand Eloquii, as well as a non-executive director at private equity firm LMS Capital. He also carried out philanthropic work as a trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum and chairman of its commercial arm, V&A Enterprises, and as group board chairman of Hyde Housing Association.

He is survived by his wife, the celebrated writer and historian Anne Sebba, and their three children Adam, Amy and Imogen and five grandchildren.