Corporate Governance

The Maurices division of Ascena Retail Group is rolling toward a footprint of more than 1,000 locations with a new round of stores opening in advance of the holidays.

Maurices plans to open sixteen locations before November 10 giving the Ascena subsidiary a total of 938 locations. The company contends the U.S. and Canada can support more than 1,300 locations.

Leading cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty named veteran financial industry executive Michelle Collins to its board.

Costco has extended its product offering to shoppers in mainland China by establishing a storefront on the Tmall e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group.

Smart machines, mobile and digital business transformation all weigh heavily in tech research giant Gartner’s top 10 predictions for IT organizations and users in 2015 and beyond.    Here is an overview of Gartner's top 10 trends:     1) By 2018, digital business will require 50% fewer business process workers and 500% more key digital business jobs, compared with traditional models.  

Kroger’s existing businesses are performing quite well so what better time to create a new senior executive role focused on new business development.

The nation’s largest supermarket operator said it named Procter & Gamble veteran Alex Tosolini to the newly created role of SVP of new business development reporting directly to CEO Rodney McMullen. Tosolini spent the past 24 years at P&G, most recently as SVP of global e-business and vp of global e-commerce.

Enterprise cloud commerce solutions provider Demandware has upped its predictive analytics game with the acquisition of CQuotient.

New York -- The news of the recent security breach at Kmart stores generated lots of comments from security experts.    Here is a roundup:         

Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Home furnishings retailer West Elm will open a store in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, Oct. 16th.    Located in The Promenade of The Fountains at Farah, the more than 22,000 square foot store will feature a curated selection of products made in Texas, part of West Elm’s Local initiative.   

Denver -- Junction Solutions announced today that it completed the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at 122 stores of Fanzz, a leading sports apparel and team gear retailer.