Borders Group to eliminate 16 top-level positions

ANN ARBOR, Mich. Borders Group announced that as part of its effort to drive further expense reductions, the company is consolidating its corporate management structure at the VP and director levels, eliminating six VP and 10 director positions. The majority of the affected positions are based at the company's headquarters in Ann Arbor.

Specifically, Borders Group has eliminated the role of EVP U.S. Stores held by Ken Armstrong, who joined the company in 2007. Steve Davis, SVP Borders Group Operations, who has been with Borders Group for 15 years in a variety of operations management positions, will take on leadership of the store operations group. In addition, the post of SVP and CIO held by Susan Harwood, who joined Borders Group in 2007, has been eliminated as the company recently shifted information technology under the leadership of Dan Smith, a 14-year Borders Group veteran who was appointed chief administrative officer one month ago. Within the Borders.com team, the position of SVP E-Business held by Kevin Ertell has been eliminated as the company will now consolidate its online presence--including e-commerce and its popular Borders Media video programming--under the leadership of Rich Fahle. Fahle will now serve as VP Borders.com. He has been with Borders Group for 10 years, most recently serving as VP content.

Other changes at the vice president level include the elimination of the following positions: VP real estate, VP human resource services and VP creative. In addition, Fred Boehler, SVP logistics, has announced he will be leaving Borders Group.

At the director level, the 10 eliminated positions include posts based outside the corporate office, as well as director posts at the corporate office within various departments including Paperchase gifts and stationery, merchandise strategy, merchandise planning and replenishment and national event marketing.

"As we address the immediate priority of getting our company's financial house in order, one of our goals is to more aggressively reduce annual expenses," said Borders Group CEO Ron Marshall. "It is difficult to make the decision to eliminate jobs, especially those of talented and dedicated leaders who have significantly contributed to our organization, yet streamlining our leadership and eliminating management layers will help us be more agile and at the same time advance us toward our expense reduction goals."