Diversity & Inclusion

RACINE, Wis. — For the fourth year in a row, SC Johnson will be the major sponsor of the 11th annual free backpack giveaway at the mayor's back-to-school Stay-in-School festival Monday, Aug. 19, from 2-6 p.m. at Festival Park in Racine, Wis.

Students in grades K-12 will receive a free backpack filled with age-appropriate school supplies.

Deborah Cavanagh has joined women’s specialty retailer Coldwater Creek as SVP and chief marketing officer after serving in a similar capacity at the LOFT division of Ann Taylor.

Cavanagh will join the company September 16 and lead multi-channel brand marketing and creative services, reporting directly to Coldwater Creek president and CEO Jill Dean. Her appointment follows the release of disappointing first quarter results that saw same store sales at the operator of 347 stores decline 10.5%

Albany, N.Y. -- Veteran retail executive Martin Hanaka has been appointed to the board of directors of Trans World Entertainment. Hanaka recently was the interim CEO of Guitar Center, Inc. from January 2013 to April 2013.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot is making a public offer to its largest shareholder, Starboard Value LLP, to settle a dispute about who should serve on its board of directors. In a press release, Office Depot said that if CEO Selection Committee members Tom Colligan and Marsha Evans are re-elected, the company would immediately invite to its board of directors any of the three Starboard nominees recommended by proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis who are not elected.

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. announced that activist investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has resigned from the board of directors of the company, effective Aug. 12. His resignation comes in the wake of a very public and heated campaign in which he called for the ouster of Penney interim CEO Myron Ullman and chairman Thomas Engibous.

The field of candidates to serve as CEO of the merged Office Depot and OfficeMax has been narrowed to five with September set as the goal to have an executive in place to lead the $18 billion combined company.

In one of the stranger situations in retail right now, J.C. Penney is defending itself against charges by activist investor Bill Ackman that it’s not moving fast enough to hire a full time CEO and remedy a situation that Ackman created when the guy he picked nearly destroyed the company.

NEWARK, Del. — The Produce Marketing Association has appointed Cathy Green Burns as the association’s president, effective December 1, as part of its continued restructuring of the senior leadership team. 

In her new role, Green Burns will focus initially on leading board and staff team development as well as lending her insight to business development activities. She will report to PMA CEO Bryan Silbermann, who previously held both president and CEO positions.