Labor & Employment

Brisbane, California — bebe stores CEO Steve Birkhold has left the company, effectively immediately, and an interim chief has been named to lead while a search for a permanent replacement is underway, said bebe stores on Thursday.

Following the sudden departure of Birkhold, the board appointed Jim Wiggett, currently CEO of Jackson Hole Group, as bebe’s interim CEO.

Bebe's Steve Birkhold has resigned as CEO, effective immediately. The board has appointed Jim Wiggett, currently CEO of Jackson Hole Group, as CEO while it starts a search for a permanent replacement.

When it comes to powerful retail CEOs, the names Dave Dillon at Kroger, Frank Blake at Home Depot, Craig Jelinek at Costco and Doug McMillon at Walmart come to mind. But they’ve got nothing on Greg Penner.

Former Walmart president and CEO Mike Duke and company chairman Rob Walton drew large numbers negative votes when they stood for re-election to the retailer’s board at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, June 6.

New York — Target Corp. announced at its annual meeting on Wednesday that the company’s shareholders re-elected its entire 10-member board of directors. Shareholders also approved the company’s executive compensation plan.

In May, proxy firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended the removal of seven board members, accusing them of failing to protect Target from its massive data breach.

Vancouver, Canada — Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Chip Wilson announced that he voted against the re-election of Michael Casey and RoAnn Costin to the board of Lululemon Athletica. Wilson, who founded the company in 1998, had been living in Australia and was asked by the company to return and deal with a quality control issue that resulted in a product recall during 2013.

Louisville, Ky. — Papa John’s International Inc. has appointed Laurette Koellner to the company’s board of directors. Koellner most recently served as executive chairman of International Lease Finance Corporation, a subsidiary of American International Group Inc. (“AIG”) from June 2012 until May 2014.

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson has voted against the re-election of Michael Casey and RoAnn Costin to the company’s board of directors.

Wilson founded the company in 1998, and has seen it evolve through many business cycles, expanding it from a small storefront in Vancouver to an international brand with more than 250 stores.

Minneapolis — Target Corp. has named Brad Maiorino as senior VP, chief information security officer, a new position added as the chain overhauls its security department in the wake of its data breach.  Maiorino comes to Target from General Motors,  where he was the company’s chief information security and information technology risk officer.  Prior to that, he was the chief information security officer at General Electric.

New Albany, Ohio — Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has named Christos Angelides president of its Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie Kids brands, a position he is expected to take in October 2014. Angelides, 51, will report to A&F CEO Mike Jeffries and will have overall responsibility for all product and customer-facing activities for the Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie Kids brands.  

He will also be accountable for the financial performance of the brands.