JCPenney names Marc Rosen CEO, Shashoua is executive chairman

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 26, 2021

US retail giant JCPenney has found a new CEO and has named Marc Rosen to the post, effective November 1. At the same time, Stanley Shashoua, chief investment officer at the firm’s owner, Simon Property Group, has been appointed executive chairman, having been interim CEO of JCPenney since January.

It’s a big step forward in establishing some stability for the retailer that has been through a volatile period in the past few years. 

“Marc joins JCPenney following a year of focused work to stabilise the business, improve financials, and position the retailer for long-term success,” said Shashoua. “Marc’s significant e-commerce and retail experience makes him the perfect fit to lead the next chapter of the company’s transformation as we work to better serve our customers.”

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And a mix of e-tail and physical retail experience is certainly what’s needed at the helm of any big-name retailer in this omnichannel age. 

The business has been strengthening its multichannel offerings in recent periods in recognition of this and in the past year alone has introduced and relaunched 16 private and exclusive national brands―six of which are entirely new private brands―across all divisions.

The include Ryegras, Linden Stree, Thereabouts, Stylus, and Juicy by Juicy Couture. 

At the same time, it has improved its digital and fulfillment capabilities and introduced JCPenney Beauty, described by it as a “hyper-inclusive beauty experience”.

It believes these efforts are paying off as far as winning back lost customers is concerned and also helping it to gain market share, “resulting in current liquidity of $1.5 billion”.

With JCPenney being almost 120 years old and having 670 stores in the US, Rosen said he’s “humbled by the opportunity to lead this storied brand and build on the progress the JCPenney team has made under their new ownership group. I have spent my career focused on iconic American retailers and it has given me a unique perspective on the value of heritage brands”.

And he certainly does have some big American names under his belt. He was most recently executive VP and president of Levi Strauss Americas and was responsible for leading the company’s global e-commerce and retail businesses, including 3,000 stores, “resulting in transformational growth”. Before this, he spent 14 years at Walmart in a variety of senior leadership functions, ultimately serving as senior VP of global e-commerce. He began his career at Ernst & Young, providing strategic retail advisory services.