Labor & Employment

Foothill Ranch, Calif. -- Wet Seal Inc. said Wednesday it has named Clinton Group nominee Lynda Davey as chairman of the board. Davey is the former chairman and CEO of Avalon Group Ltd. and will replace the recently departed Harold Kahn.

The announcement follows earlier news that four Clinton Group nominees joined the Wet Seal board of directors: Davey, Dorrit Bern, Mindy Meads and John Mills.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. said Tuesday that CFO James Muehlbauer has resigned the company. He will continue in an advisory capacity until Feb. 3.

The retailer said it has launched a search for a permanent replacement.

Muehlbauer’s resignation is the latest in a string of executive departures for Best Buy, and comes as founder and former chairman Richard Schulze mulls an offer to buy the company.

Green Bay, Wis. -- Shopko Stores announced Wednesday that Mike Bettiga has been named interim CEO to replace Paul Jones, who resigned to pursue another opportunity.

Bettiga is a 35-veteran of the company, and most recently served as executive VP and COO. Shopko is owned by private investment firm Sun Capital Partners.

Mississauga, Ontario -- Walmart Canada said Tuesday it will complete 30 real estate projects by the end of October, including two supercenter conversions and 28 new stores totaling 2.4 million sq. ft. of retail space.

The new stores were former Zellers locations; 10 will be converted to supercenters and 18 will be Walmart Canada discount stores.

“This is an exciting month for Walmart Canada,” said Jim Thompson, COO, Walmart Canada.

Atlanta -- The Sembler Co. said that Charlie Heard has joined the firm as VP development and southeast market leader for the company. He will be based in Atlanta.

Heard’s duties consist of pursuing new shopping center development opportunities in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.  He has been involved in development projects for retailers such as Publix, Kroger, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, CVS and Walgreen's and has worked with top-tier retailers on site selection across industry sectors.

WILTON, Conn. — Beiersdorf, the U.S. subsidiary of Beiersdorf AG — a global skin care company based in Hamburg, Germany — has announced the appointment of Bill Graham as president and general manager of Beiersdorf North America.

Graham previously served as president and general manager of Beiersdorf. His new role includes leadership of both the United States and Canadian business units.
 
Graham was promoted to the position of general manager of Beiersdorf in August 2011, after joining the company as VP sales in 2007.

New York -- The Conference Board Employment Trends Index decreased again in September, following a downward revision in August. The index now stands at 107.86, down from the revised figure of 108.23 in August. The September figure is 5.4% higher than a year ago.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only person in the industry to raise an eyebrow when the S&P Retail Index notched an all-time high last month. Closing at $669.26 on September 14th to reach that milestone, the index has continued to creep up even further the last couple of weeks. A closer look at the stock market performance of the retail sector shows that both REITs and many individual retailers are continuing a strong positive trend—which makes sense, of course, because REITs will perform better in a strong retail environment when retailers are doing well.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway SVP human resources, Russ Jackson, has been named by Human Resource Executive magazine to the 2012 HR Honor Roll. Jackson will be recognized by the publication on Oct. 9 at a black tie awards dinner at the University Club of Chicago.

"Russ is a transformational architect within Safeway," said Safeway EVP, Larree Renda. "With his vision, insight and drive for results, he has built a human resources organization that is a powerful accelerator of change."

New York -- More than half (53%) of middle market executives believe that their companies are on solid ground, according to a survey by CIT Group Inc., a leading provider of financing to small businesses and middle market companies. (In order to be eligible to participate in the survey, respondents had to be in a leadership role at firms with revenues between $25 million and $1 billion, the majority of whose employees were based in the United States.)