Consumer Affairs & Relations

Former Procter & Gamble group president Jorge Mesquita has been hired by Johnson & Johnson as worldwide chairman of its consumer companies. 

Mesquita, 53, will serve on the corporation’s management committee, lead the consumer group operating committee and report to Sandi Peterson, group worldwide chairman.

A $43.5 million fine has been levied against 10 Wall Street firms for doing what they were asked by Toys “R” Us as the retailer prepared an ill-fated public stock offering in 2010.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) levied the $43.5 million fine against the 10 investment banks – but not Toys “R” Us – for allowing their equity research analysts to solicit investment banking business and offer favorable research coverage in connection with the retailer’s planned IPO in 2010.

Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) have become more common on companies’ senior leadership teams. They might be in even higher demand after the highly publicized data breaches at Target, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus and other companies in the past couple of years (see a timeline of data breaches in the past decade here). In fact, Neiman Marcus just hired its first CISO, Sarah Hendrickson.

Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock cited the recovering U.S. economy as among the reasons why the company plans to focus more on market differentiation and omnichannel retailing.

The company said it will outline these and other strategic priorities in a meeting with investors on Dec. 11 in North Carolina.

Ankenny, Iowa – Casey’s General Stores Inc. beat Wall Street expectations with net income of $49.89 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, up 21% from $39.43 million the same period the prior year. Growth of cost of goods sold did not keep pace with growth of sales, aiding the retailer’s profit.  

New York - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has reportedly discovered discrepancies in accounting practices its China business was using that made performance look better than it really was. According to Bloomberg, shifty accounting practices included making unauthorized bulk sales to other retailers and even booking non-existent sales. 

Walmart’s integrity suffered a blow this week in a Bloomberg piece with the inflammatory headline, “How Walmart made its crumbling China business look so good for so long.”

New York - Olshan Properties announced that Matthew B. Winn will join the firm effective January 2015 as COO.  Reporting directly to CEO Andrea Olshan and working closely with her executive team on the overall management of the company, Winn will be responsible for leading the firm’s daily operations and refining its operating policies, procedures, and processes. He will also focus on ensuring growth of the company’s platform as well as work to enhance its operational efficiency.