Shakeup at Charming Shoppes

Charming Shoppes Inc. (Bensalem, Pa.) has reported the resignation of president and ceo Dorrit Bern. Chairman Alan Rosskamm will serve as ceo on an interim basis. The retailer’s board has formed a special committee to undertake an immediate search for a permanent ceo.

LuAnn Via, president of the retailer’s Lane Bryant brand, also resigned, to become president and ceo of Payless Shoe Source Inc. (Topeka, Kan.). She will be replaced at the Columbus, Ohio-based division by Brian Woolf, former chairman and ceo of Cache, Inc. (New York). Before joining Cache, Woolf held senior merchandising positions at a number of retailer organizations, including Limited Stores (Columbus, Ohio) and the Lazarus, Bloomingdale's and Macy's divisions of Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati).

“Dorrit and the board agreed that now is the appropriate time for a change in leadership of the company,” Rosskamm said. “Her leadership resulted in the repositioning of Charming Shoppes as a multi-brand, multi-channel specialty apparel retailer, and the nation's leader in women's specialty plus apparel. Our priorities are to refocus our energies on our core brands — Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherines — and to leverage our leading market share position in women's specialty plus apparel.”

At Payless, Via will replace Matthew Rubel as the leader of the Payless business unit. He is now chairman and ceo of Collective Brands Inc. (Topeka), the holding company formed in 2007 when Payless acquired The Stride Rite Corp. (Lexington, Mass.). She will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the 4500-store retail unit, including merchandising, marketing and retail operations in the U.S., Canada, Central America, the Caribbean and South America.