Corporate Governance

Roughly 1,300 American Eagle Outfitters employees are participating this year in the retailer’s second annual AEO Better World Community Day.

The operator of more than 1,000 stores throughout the U.S. and several international markets developed the community involvement initiative last year as a means to unite employees for a common cause to make a difference at the local level. The company designated Tuesday, June 10 as Better World Day.

Activist investor Carl Icahn on Friday reported a 9.4% stake in Family Dollar, making him the company’s largest shareholder and prompting concerns of a hostile takeover.
 
Family Dollar has responded by adopting a one-year shareholder rights plan with a 10% trigger that would prevent any investor from gaining a controlling interest of the company without board approval.
 

Silicon Valley saw some drama late Monday when PayPal announced that president David Marcus was leaving to lead Facebook’s messaging products.

The split was amicable with eBay president and CEO John Donahoe wishing Marcus well at Facebook.

Oak Brook, Ill. — The Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. has appointed Chong P. Huan chief information officer. He will direct all information technology initiatives for Inland and its member companies. In addition, Huan will serve as CEO of Inland Computer Services, Inland’s in-house IT and computer services department.

Cincinnati, Ohio — Phillips Edison & Co. has appointed Robyn Capuano Hays senior leasing director for The Shoppes at Parma, a $70 million redevelopment of the former Parmatown Mall, currently underway in Parma, Ohio, not far from Cleveland. The project includes an enclosed shopping mall, power center, strip center, outparcels, restaurants, and office space.

Fayettville, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores president and CEO Doug McMillon told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting on Friday that the company would accelerate the pace of change going forward. Presiding over over his first shareholders’ meeting since being named chief executive, McMillon put a big emphasis on technology, saying that the chain needs to be “at the forefront of innovation and technology.”

Atlanta — Shapewear wholesaler and retailer Spanx announced that Jan Singer has been named CEO of the company. She joins Spanx from Nike, where she held various senior leadership roles, including corporate VP of global apparel and corporate VP of global footwear.  

Singer, who will report to Spanx founder and owner Sara Blakely, is expected to come on board in early July.  Gregg Ribatt, interim CEO, will assist Singer through a transition, and then continue to serve on the company’s board of advisors.

Commerce, Calif. and Herzogenaurach, Germany — At the recent SAP Sapphire 2014 conference, 99 Cents Only Stores and Adidas AG both detailed how they are using different SAP solutions in different ways for the same ultimate goal – increased accessibility and transparency of data.

Washington, D.C. — Import volume at major U.S. container ports is expected to increase 7.5% in June as retailers bring unusually high quantities of merchandise into the country early to avoid any potential disruptions after the labor contract with West Coast dockworkers expires. According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates, in June U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker are expected to handle 1.46 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU), up 7.5% year-over-year.

San Francisco — U.S. retailers reported 5% year-over-year growth in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales. According to monthly figures from in-store retail analytics provider Euclid, shoppers made fewer trips to the store than expected, but were very engaged and showed a lot of intent to buy.