From: ASAP
Remote Name: 64.12.103.162
Federated Department Stores, Inc. today announced a change in executive management at its Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's (RLG) division. Arnold Orlick, 55, who has served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based division since January 1999, has resigned to pursue other interests. Ron Klein, 52, currently executive vice chairman of Macy's East, has been named chairman and chief executive officer of RLG, effective immediately.
"We are appreciative of all that Arnie Orlick has done in his long career with Federated, and most especially for his many accomplishments at RLG over the last four years," James M. Zimmerman, Federated's chairman and chief executive officer, said in making today's announcement. "We value his contributions to the company and certainly wish him well in all of his future endeavors."
Klein previously served as chairman of the company's Stern's division from January 1999 until its closing earlier this year. In his new position, he joins with David L. Nichols, president and chief operating officer of RLG, which operates 78 stores 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," Zimmerman said.
Klein began his retail career as a buyer at Federated's Bloomingdale's division in 1974. He progressed to the position of divisional merchandise manager before leaving in 1983 to become vice president/divisional merchandise manager for Saks Fifth Avenue. Klein returned to Federated in 1985 and for the next nine years held various merchandising positions of increasing responsibility at Sanger-Harris in Dallas and Foley's in Houston.
In 1994, Klein became senior vice president 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.
A native of New York City, Klein is a graduate of American University and holds a masters degree in business administration from New York University. He and his wife, Bonnie, have three children.
Prior to Orlick being named president of RLG in 1997 and chairman two years later, he was executive vice president/director of stores at Bloomingdale's. He began his retail career in 1969 as an executive trainee at Abraham & Straus, a New York-based division of Federated 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 vice president/general merchandise manager in 1984. He returned to Bloomingdale's in 1992 as executive vice president/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.
Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation's leading department store retailers, with annual sales of more than $18.4 billion. Federated currently operates more than 450 department stores in 34 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, under the names of Macy's, Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus and Rich's, as well as macys.com, bloomingdales.com and Bloomingdale's By Mail. Federated also operates the Fingerhut catalog and e-commerce subsidiary.
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