Arthur Martinez, the former chairman, president and ceo of Sears Roebuck & Co. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.), has been named non-executive chairman of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (New Albany, Ohio).
Michael Jeffries, who had been chairman since 1996, will remain ceo and will continue to serve on the board.
One of A&F’s shareholders, Engaged Capital LLC (Newport Beach, Calif.), has been urging the retailer to shake up its management, including firing Jeffries and finding a new ceo.
A&F has suffered through threee straight quarterly sales declines, and the volatile Jeffries – who gobbled up the credit for the company’s soaring successes of the previous decade – has been saddled with blame for the losses.
Martinez, who left Sears in 2000, was given much of the credit for the “Softer Side of Sears” campaign in the 1990s that reinvented the brand and its stores and briefly elevated the struggling company’s fortunes.