Corporate Governance

Los Angeles – Creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi is making three key executive changes. Julie Michael has been named president of Team One, Saatchi & Saatchi's fully integrated premium, luxury and aspirational brand agency, effective Aug. 1.

Seattle – Amazon.com is releasing its Echo voice-activated artificial intelligence device for general availability in July, and taking consumer orders now. Echo was made available on an invitation basis to customers who wanted to help shape the device in November 2014.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will no longer sell merchandise featuring the Confederate flag in its stores or online. The retailer is removing the flag, long a source of controversy due to its connections to slavery and use as a symbol by white supremacists, in the wake of a racially-motivated mass shooting at a historically black Charleston, South Carolina church.

Hong Kong – A subsidiary of global export company Li & Fung is partnering with two Chinese department store retailers to open as many as 300 stores in the Shanghai free trade zone. Li & Fung Trading (China) Holdings Ltd. is forming a joint venture with Shanghai Bailian Group Co. Ltd. and Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co. Ltd. Li & Fung holds a 20% stake and each department store chain owns a 40% stake.

A study of 10,000 U.S. consumers revealed H-E-B, Publix and Trader Joe's are tops when it comes to making customers feel delighted.

Woonsocket, R.I. -- Norman de Greve will join CVS Health as chief marketing officer, effective July 15. In this role, de Greve will be accountable for marketing strategy across the enterprise.  

Currently, de Greve is president of the Boston and Detroit offices of the DigitasLBi marketing agency. de Greve has experience in cross-channel communications planning, brand campaigns, media, loyalty and analytics.

In addition to his 14 years at DigitasLBi, de Greve spent time in management consulting.
 

CVS Health has selected a DigitasLBi executive to be its next marketing chief.

New York – Disney and Ralph Lauren, vertical brands with a strong retail presence, are the highest-ranked retailers in a new Brand Keys survey of what brands U.S. consumers consider the most patriotic. To determine the rankings, Brand Keys drilled down into consumer response to 230 brands to see which were most associated with the value of patriotism.

Following is a list of the retailers who made the list of top 50 most patriotic brands, with their emotional engagement strength for patriotism:

No. 3: Disney (96%)