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J.C. Penney appoints CEO
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July 27, 2000: 11:31 a.m. ET
Troubled chain taps Barneys' Questrom, veteran retailing executive, to top job
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Troubled retailer J.C. Penney Co. Inc. Thursday named veteran retailing executive Allen Questrom its new chief executive officer.
Questrom, 60, will resign his position as president and CEO of Barneys New York to take the job effective Sept. 15, the company said. He succeeds Penney's outgoing CEO, James Oesterreicher, who is leaving in the midst of shareholder criticism about the company's tumbling stock price.
 As former CEO of Federated Department Stores (FD: Research, Estimates), Questrom is credited with rescuing the company from bankruptcy and engineering its acquisition of rival Macy's. He is also credited with turning Barneys around after it emerged from bankruptcy.
Shares of Plano, Texas-based J.C. Penney (JCP: Research, Estimates), the nation's No. 5 retailer, closed up 2-3/8, or 16 percent, to 17-1/4 following the announcement Thursday. However, the stock is far off its 52-week high of about 50 set back in May.
"J.C. Penney is one of the legendary names in American retailing, and I am honored to be part of this great company," Questrom said. "I have met with members of the board and top management, and we are all enthusiastic about what we can achieve together. The desire to succeed is extremely strong here, and I am pleased to have been given he opportunity to lead the company."
Penney hopes the appointment is the boost the company needs to keep up with discount competitors such as Wal-Mart (WMT: Research, Estimates), Target (TGT: Research, Estimates) and Kohl's.
In February, the company announced it would close 40-to-45 of its 1,150 department stores in addition to nearly 300 of its 2,900 Eckerd drug stores as part of a $530 million restructuring initiative.
That announcement came as Penney's fiscal fourth-quarter results came in 40 percent below the previous quarter's -- in stark contrast to other retailers that saw gains in the quarter, which included the all-important year-end holiday season.
 Questrom has served as president and CEO of upscale specialty retailer Barneys New York since May 1999. Prior to that, he spent two years as CEO of Neiman Marcus and seven years as CEO of Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy's.
"I think the dedication and experience level here is enormous, and the challenge is to get everyone focused on the same point, which is the customer," Questrom told analysts during a conference call Thursday.
He said he felt comfortable stepping into his new role as CEO of a company that caters to middle America, as opposed to the upscale customers he was accustomed to at Federated and Barneys.
Although he declined to provide details, Questrom said he believes J.C. Penney has one of the strongest catalog and Internet retailing operations and plans to optimize those channels.
Barneys said Questrom will be in charge of finding his successor, chosen from "a short list of potential candidates," Reuters reported. 
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J.C. Penney
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