Arnold Orlick, chairman and ceo of Federated's Atlanta-based Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith division since January 1999, has resigned “to pursue other interests.” Ron Klein, currently executive vice chairman of Macy's East, has been named to replace Orlick, effective immediately.
Klein had been chairman of the company's Stern's division until its closing earlier this year. In his new position, he joins with president and coo David L. Nichols in heading the 78-store chain that operates in nine Southeastern and Midwestern states.
“Ron Klein is an accomplished retail executive whose depth of management experience, combined with strong leadership skills and an exceptional merchandising acumen, will serve the company well in this important position,” said Federated chairman and ceo James Zimmerman.
Klein, 52, began his retail career as a buyer at Federated's Bloomingdale's division in 1974. He subsequently moved up to divisional merchandise manager before leaving in 1983 to become vp/divisional merchandise manager for Saks Fifth Avenue. Klein returned to Federated in 1985, and for the next nine years held various merchandising positions at Sanger-Harris in Dallas and Foley's in Houston.
In 1994, Klein became senior vp at Federated Merchandising Group (FMG), the company's New York-based merchandising and product development division. He moved to Macy's East as vice chairman and director of stores in February 1998, a position he held until being named chairman of Stern's the following year.
Orlick, 55, had been executive vp/director of stores at Bloomingdale's before moving to Atlanta with the RLG division. He began his retail career in 1969 as an executive trainee at Abraham & Straus (then a New York-based division of Federated that was later merged into Macy's East). Orlick left A&S in 1979 to become divisional merchandise manager at Robinson's in Los Angeles, where he was promoted to senior vp/general merchandise manager in 1984. He returned to Bloomingdale's in 1992 as executive vp/general merchandise manager for home stores, cosmetics and restaurant operations.
RLG, with annual sales of more than $2.2 billion in 2000, operates 25 stores under the Rich's name in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina; 47 stores under the Lazarus nameplate in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia; and six stores as Goldsmith's in Tennessee.