Kevin Peters to leave Office Depot

Office Depot on Friday announced that Kevin Peters had resigned from his role as president of the retailer’s North American division effective immediately.

Office Depot said Peters was leaving the company after five years to become CEO of an unidentified industrial distribution company.

"In his five years with Office Depot, Kevin was instrumental in building a strong team while driving the strategic vision for our North American sales channels and our supply chain organization," said Neil Austrian. Office Depot’s chairman and CEO. "We thank him for his many contributions to our company and wish him well in the future."

Austrian will now oversee the company’s North American business.

The position Peters is vacating was newly created for him 18 months ago as part of a larger reorganization of senior management. Office Depot sought to combine oversight of its North American Retail and North American Business Solutions divisions and Peters was tapped to make it happen.

At the time, Austrian said, “for the first time, we are consolidating all of our North American operations under one leader, allowing us to break down silos, increase our productivity and improve the execution of our key initiatives. We are confident that this approach will help us to better serve our business customers and consumers.”

Peters joined Office Depot in October 2007 as EVP of supply chain and in March 2009 was given additional responsibilities for information technology. He was named president of North American Retail in April 2010.

Prior to joining Office Depot, Peters spent five years in management roles at W.W. Grainger and 11 years at The Home Depot.