New leadership emerges at Office Depot

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. Office Depot is bringing in new merchandising leadership following the recent shakeup at the company which lead to the firing of four executives.

Kim Maguire, a 30-year retail merchandising veteran, will now lead merchandising at Office Depot. His experience includes nearly two years at QVC as evp and chief merchandising officer; three years at Circuit City as evp of merchandising; and more than 20 years at Target, the last eight as senior vp of merchandising for hardlines goods.

"Kim’s track record of driving sales and profitability with world-class merchandising teams makes him the perfect leader for this very important organization within Office Depot," said Chuck Rubin, president of North American retail for Office Depot. “We are delighted that Kim has agreed to join the Office Depot team."

Kim fills the position previous held by Scott Koerner, who was among four merchandising executives dismissed last week in connecting with an investigation into how the company accounted for vendor funds.

Additionally, Randy Wick has joined Office Depot as vp of merchandising, strategy and services. He replaces Stephen Olsen, who will now assume the role of vp of merchandising for supplies.

Wick has more than 20 years of expertise and leadership in merchandising, strategic planning and retail, most recently at Circuit City where he was the senior vp and general merchandise manager for consumer electronics. Prior to Circuit City, Wick held executive merchandising positions at Petters Group Worldwide and Best Buy. In his new role, Wick will lead the service and solutions offerings for Office Depot, including the continued rollout of Tech Depot Services.

Office Depot last week said it fired four unidentified people within its merchandising ranks whose actions resulted in the company overstating earnings during the third and fourth quarters of 2006 and the first and second quarters of 2007. As a result, the company plans to restate its earnings from those periods by reducing earnings per share by a total of a total of 8 cents a share over the four quarters and applying 7 cents a share spread over future quarterly periods.

The change resulted from an investigation that stemmed from a whistleblower complaint. The board of directors audit committee, independent legal counsel and forensic accountants then began an investigation, and they concluded that the four merchants failed to provide information to Office Depot accountants that resulted in revenue being incorrectly recognized in four previous quarters.