Chain Reaction

Federated Department Stores (Cincinnati) announced a chain reaction of management changes, to take effect April 1: Susan Kronick will become group president of Federated (a new position, reporting directly to president and cmo Terry Lundgren); Timothy Adams will replace Kronick as chairman of Federated's Florida-based Burdines division; Peter Sachse will replace Adams as president of the Seattle-based Bon Marche division; and Ronald Klein will replace Sachse as executive vp of the Macy's East division in New York, responsible for store operations.

Klein had been chairman of the Stern's division, which Federated is in the process of closing down. James Andress will continue as president of Stern's, responsible for the transition of that division's stores to Macy's and Bloomingdale's, after which he is expected to be named to another position in the company.

In announcing the changes, chairman and ceo James Zimmerman said of Kronick's new post, “We are creating the new position of group president within Federated in order to provide greater support for our regional department store operations, which together account for more than one-third of Federated's total annual revenues.” Kronick has been with Federated for 28 years, from executive trainee at Bloomingdale's in 1973; through operating vp/divisional merchandise manager, senior vp/gmm, executive vp/gmm to senior executive vp/director of stores for Bloomingdale's in 1991. In 1993, she was named president of Federated's Atlanta-based Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith division. And in 1997, she became chairwoman of Burdines.

Federated operates more than 400 department stores in 33 states and Puerto Rico under the nameplates of Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Macy's and Rich's (along with the previous, soon-to-be-converted Stern's).