NRF Names Kip Tindell Chair, Ceo

The National Retail Federation (Washington, D.C.) today named Kip Tindell, chair and ceo of the Container Store (Coppell, Texas), chair of the board of directors and chair of its executive committee. Tindell succeeds immediate past chair Stephen Sadove, retired chair and ceo of Saks Fifth Avenue (New York). Tindell was elected during a meeting of the NRF’s board yesterday at the trade group’s 104th annual convention and expo, “Retail’s Big Show,” in New York. Mindy Grossman, ceo of HSNi (St. Petersburg, Fla.), was elected vice chair of the NRF board. Both positions carry a two-year term. Tindell and Grossman will work with NRF president and ceo Matthew Shay.
 

The election of Tindell was unexpected to some, as the executive differs with the organization on the key issue of raising the national minimum wage. The Container Store has garnered attention recently for its practice of paying store-level workers some of the highest salaries in retail—about $50,000 a year on average. The NRF opposes a national minimum wage increase.

According to Women’s Wear Daily, the organization also elected five new board members. They are Marla Beck, co-founder and ceo of Bluemercury, Inc.; Pauline Brown, chair of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Inc.; Gunther Bright, U.S. executive vp of American Express, Merchant Services; Rick J. Caruso, founder and ceo of Caruso Affiliated; and Curtis Picard, executive director of the Retail Association of Maine.