SPIEGEL ASSEMBLES NEW TEAM OF EXECS
NEW YORK — The Spiegel Group has promoted a number of executives who will collectively make up the brain trust of Martin Zaepfel when he becomes president and chief executive of Spiegel July 1.
The company said Friday that, as expected, Michael Moran, chairman of the office of the president and chief legal officer, and James Sievers, office of the president and chief financial officer, will retire June 30. The ceo-by-committee structure in place since John Shea’s 1997 retirement will be discontinued at that time.
Jim Cannataro, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Eddie Bauer division, will be promoted to chief financial officer of the company. David Boothby, formerly the Spiegel Catalog’s senior vice president of finance, operations and retail, has been named senior vice president of the company with responsibility for operations. Irene Wilson, currently vice president of consumer behavior and trend forecasting for Spiegel Catalog, will become vice president of corporate marketing.
Additionally, David Kardesh, vice president of applications development for the company, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief information officer. Kardesh succeeds Jon Nordeen who, Spiegel said, has “resigned to accept another position.”
All four individuals will report to the office of the president and then to Zaepfel, as will the presidents of all business units and the area of human resources.
A statement from Spiegel’s board of directors said of Moran and Sievers, “Together, they have guided the company during a critical period as it has returned to profitability.” Moran will provide certain advisory services to Spiegel following his retirement and also serve as chairman of the board of First Consumers National Bank, a unit of Spiegel.
One operation poised to benefit from the information services unit is Spiegel’s e-commerce Web site, at spiegel.com, which was the 15th-fastest growing e-tailer of apparel in December versus November, according to new numbers from Web ratings agency Media Metrix. Media Metrix found Spiegel.com drew 1.14 million visitors in December, a 3 percent hop over the 1.1 million it drew in November. That growth rate placed Spiegel in a tie with Target.com and Abercrombie.com, each of which also registered 3 percent gains in customer traffic for the month.