Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation today announced Jeff Sherman will join the Company as Chief Operating Officer of Polo's Retail Group, effective April 19, 2004. Mr. Sherman replaces Bridget Ryan Berman, who will be leaving the Company in June to pursue other interests. Mr. Sherman will be responsible for the daily management of Polo Retail's shared services support groups and will report to Roger Farah, President and Chief Operating Officer.
Wayne Meichner, President of Polo Retail Corporation, Ken Pilot, President of Factory Outlets and Concept Development, and Charles Fagan, Executive Vice President of Global Retail Brand Development will co-report to Ralph Lauren and Mr. Farah. John Mehas, President of Club Monaco, will report directly to Mr. Farah.
Mr. Sherman's career highlights span 29 years at Bloomingdale's, including 11 years as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company. Prior to that, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Bloomingdale's. After leaving Bloomingdale's, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Federated Direct where he was responsible for the $1.5 billion online and catalog businesses. Most recently, Mr. Sherman was Chief Executive Officer of the Limited Stores where he was responsible for 368 stores.
#'We are pleased that Jeff, who I have known for many years, will be joining our retail group and directing its sales support operations. His 30 years of experience in all major areas of retail is a perfect complement to our strength in retail merchandising. Through his direction, we will be able to better leverage our retail operations across all of our concepts globally,'' said Mr. Farah, adding, #'On behalf of the entire Company, I want to thank Bridget for helping to execute our retail strategic plan over the past few years. All of us here wish her the very best.''