Retail

J.C. Penney Names Mike Ullman Succession Plan: Meet the New CEO

Jon C. Ogg
Published:

JC Penney - shops
Courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.; photo by Chris Rupert
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) had its analyst meeting just last week, and CEO Mike Ullman said he would remain on as long as the company wanted him to. Well, we already know more or less how long that will be. The company announced on Monday morning that Marvin Ellison will be president and CEO-designee, effective November 1, 2014. Ellison will also join the board of directors.

Ellison is currently executive vice president of stores at Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD). The press release gives a timeline for succeeding Mike Ullman as CEO of J.C. Penney as August 1, 2015. Mike Ullman will then become executive chairman of the board of directors for one year.

The timing of this announcement will be bad for at least two analysts on Wall Street. Maxim downgraded J.C. Penney to Sell on Friday, and then UBS downgraded J.C. Penney to Sell on Monday. Shares had been down on the downgrade after a 6.8% drop on Friday to $7.12, but the premarket indications Monday put J.C. Penney shares up more than 7% at $7.61. The stock has a 52-week range of $4.90 to $11.30.

Marvin Ellison is currently 49 and is said to come with nearly 30 years of experience in the retail industry. Prior to his 12-year tenure at Home Depot, he served for 15 years in various positions at Target. The press release also said of Ellison:

As executive vice president of U.S. stores since August 2008, he has been the senior-most operations leader for Home Depot’s approximately 2,000 stores. Prior to that, he was president of the Northern Division, a role in which he had responsibility for the sales and operations of more than 700 stores in 21 states and led a team of more than 150,000 associates. Previously, he was senior vice president of global logistics, with oversight of all domestic distribution, transportation, store and appliance delivery, import distribution and international logistics throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, China and more than 35 other countries. Before joining Home Depot, Mr. Ellison spent 15 years with Target in a variety of operational roles, including Corporate Director of Asset Protection.

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Read more: Retail, JCP, CEO Performance, Corporate Governance

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