Macy’s Sets Executive Changes, Eliminates COO
● The retailer said the changes will make the company nimbler and more efficient.
Two key Macy’s Inc. executives, John Harper, Macy’s chief operations officer, and Marla Beck, the chief executive officer and cofounder of the Bluemercury division, will depart the company this summer.
Harper’s departure is effective Aug. 1. Macy’s is eliminating the role of chief operations officer. With that, Marc Mastronardi, chief stores officer, and Dennis Mullahy, chief supply chain officer, will report to Jeff Gennette, Macy’s Inc. chairman and chief executive officer.
Beck will leave in the summer, though her exact departure date was not specified.
In September 2019, Beck and her husband Barry Beck, the other cofounder of Bluemercury and its former chief operating officer, said they would leave the company. He left that month, but Marla stayed on and gave no timeline for her departure.
Macy’s has commenced a search for a new CEO of Bluemercury who, once appointed, will report to Tony Spring, chairman and CEO of Bloomingdale’s.
The Becks opened Bluemercury over two decades ago with one shop in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and built it up into a network of neighborhood-based beauty stores that carried high-end brands normally seen in department stores. The duo sold the company to Macy’s in 2015 for $210 million. Macy’s website indicates that there are 166 Bluemercury stores.
In another senior-level change, Laura Miller has been appointed chief information officer, effective March 15. She will report directly to Gennette and will be responsible for the company’s information technology platforms and teams. Most recently, she served as CIO of InterContinental Hotel Group. Miller succeeds chief technology officer Naveen Krishna, who is leaving the company.
Also, Chuck DiGiovanna, currently vice president, real estate, has been appointed to lead Macy’s real estate function, succeeding Douglas W. Sesler, who is leaving the company. DiGiovanna will report to Adrian V. Mitchell, chief financial officer.
“As a digitally led omnichannel retailer, Macy’s, Inc. is in the midst of an exciting transformation,” said Gennette, in a statement Monday afternoon. “We are building a diverse leadership team that includes a blend of new talent with outside perspectives along with our tenured and best developed leaders who will accelerate the progress of our Polaris growth strategy. I am confident that these changes in reporting structure will enable us to be nimbler and more efficient as we move forward in our recovery and drive top- and bottom-line growth.”
He cited Miller’s “deep experience implementing technology-enabled strategies [which] will play an important role in advancing our work to improve the full omni-shopping experience and modernize our platforms. I extend my gratitude to John, who has dedicated more than 35 years of his career to Macy’s and has been an important partner to me and the management team, as well as to Naveen and Doug for their many contributions to Macy’s. We also thank Marla for her many accomplishments at Bluemercury. Each has been a valued leader at our company.”
Miller was named global CIO of IHG in February 2018, responsible for strategy, delivery, operations and security for more than 5,900 hotels in over 100 countries. She delivered several organization-wide transformational changes including implementation of a new central reservation system. Earlier, she served as senior vice president at First Data Corporation, a highly regulated global payments processing leader that serves more than six million merchant locations, thousands of card issuers and millions of consumers, among other jobs during her career.