Brookstone Inc., the product development company and multi-channel specialty retailer, has appointed Stephen Bebis as the company’s new president and chief executive officer and member of the Board of Directors.

“We are extremely pleased that Stephen has agreed to serve as Brookstone’s new president and chief executive officer,” said Jackson Tai, chairman of the Board of Directors of Brookstone and its Interim president and CEO since January.

“We conducted a broad CEO search and interviewed a number of highly qualified internal and external candidates,” he said. “We were impressed by Stephen’s track record as an entrepreneur, his hands-on experience as a manager and mentor at the highest levels in the retail industry, and his ability to drive growth and achieve market leadership.”

Prior to joining Brookstone, Bebis spent 14 years as founder, president and CEO of Golf Town, the largest specialty golf retailer in Canada, and one of the largest in the world.

Starting the business from scratch, Bebis grew Golf Town to 57 locations across Canada and led the expansion of the company into the Boston market last year with seven stores.

Bebis began his retailing career with Sears in store sales and management, and later moved into merchandising roles in 1976 with Grossman’s Lumber Chain, a home-improvement company based in the Boston area, and in 1984 with The Home Depot, where he grew revenues through the introduction of new merchandise categories.

After serving as the vice president of General Merchandise Manager for Home Depot’s Mid-Southern Division, Bebis in 1991, led the start-up of Aikenhead’s Home Improvement Warehouse in Toronto.

As president and CEO, Bebis grew the company to 12 stores with 10 planned before selling Aikenhead’s in 1994 to The Home Depot. After two years as president and CEO of The Home Depot Canada, Bebis joined Jumbo Sports Inc. (formerly Sports and Recreation) in 1996 as president and CEO before launching Golf Town in 1998.

“I am thrilled to be leading Brookstone,” Bebis said. “Very few retailers have the power of the Brookstone brand, the company’s heritage as a product innovator, plus Brookstone’s unique ability to distribute creative lifestyle products through our multi-channel resources, including our acclaimed catalog, our dynamic website, www.brookstone.com, our valued wholesale partners and our interactive, customer-friendly retail stores.

“I’m impressed, like everyone, by the quality of Brookstone’s innovative product assortment, and it’s the chance of a lifetime to be able to work with talented and dedicated people who share the same goal of bringing excitement and fun to our customers.”