Hancock Fabrics sews up financial department with new CFO

BALDWYN, Miss. — Hancock Fabrics has announced that James B. Brown will be joining Hancock Fabrics as EVP and CFO on March 18, reporting to Steve Morgan, president and CEO. Brown will oversee the areas of accounting-finance, loss prevention, IT, human resources, and in addition, will have oversight responsibility to the planning and allocation function.

Prior to joining Hancock, Brown as employed by Fred’s Inc., in Memphis, where he served as SVP finance from November 2011 to March 2013, being promoted from his earlier positions of VP planning and analysis which he held from June 2008 to November 2011 and assistant controller, which he held from February 2006 to May 2008. He started his accounting career with Feeley & Driscoll, P.C., a public accounting firm in Boston, following his service in the Marine Corps and graduating from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelor Degree in Accounting and Economics. From there he entered private industry, holding accounting management positions in such diverse organizations as Dragon Systems, Inc. - a speech recognition software company; Transform Pharmaceuticals, Inc. - a biotech start-up; Rotable Asset Management, LLC - a company specializing in aircraft parts and maintenance; and Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. - a regional airline.

Hancock Fabrics’ CEO, Steve Morgan stated, “James joins Hancock Fabrics at an exciting time in its history. Hancock Fabrics continues to focus on developing and strengthening its capability across the organization and notably in the areas of Inventory Control, Loss Prevention, Real Estate and Human Resources. We believe we have developed a solid infrastructure as evidenced by 17 consecutive months of positive comparable sales. We are confident that James will be a dynamic force, and that he will take a leadership role in driving continued improved financial performance and future sales growth with the rest of the team.”