John T. Harper Named President of Macy’s Home Store

Furniture World News

Macy’s, Inc. announced that John T. Harper has been named president and chief operating officer of its New York-based Macy’s Home Store division, effective Aug. 6, 2007. Currently, he serves as vice chairman and director of stores of the Macy’s Midwest division in St. Louis. Harper replaces Michael J. Osborn, who retires effective Aug. 3 after more than 33 years of service with the company. He joins Timothy M. Adams, chairman and chief executive officer, and Jeffrey A. Kantor, president for furniture, as principals of the Macy’s Home Store division, which is responsible for the centralized buying, merchandising and marketing of home furnishings for Macy’s stores nationwide. Harper will report to Adams. “John Harper is an outstanding executive with a deep understanding of our business and our customers. His knowledge of Macy’s stores in new and legacy markets will be a great asset as John succeeds Mike Osborn, who has been invaluable in improving the operational effectiveness of Macy’s Home Store and positioning it for success in the future,” said Macy’s, Inc. Vice Chair Janet E. Grove, to whom Macy’s Home Store reports. “A seamless transition from Mike to John also demonstrates the value of the deep reservoir of management talent within our company.” Harper, 47, has been vice chairman and director of stores at Macy’s Midwest since February 2006. Previously, he served since 2004 as chairman of Hecht’s/Strawbridge’s, then an Arlington, VA-based division. He also served Hecht’s/Strawbridge’s as senior vice president/finance, senior vice president/operations and vice president/profit management. Harper joined The May Department Stores Company at its Kaufmann’s division in 1983. He held numerous accounting, strategic planning, and financial positions at the Kaufmann’s, L.S. Ayres, and Famous-Barr divisions prior to joining Hecht’s as vice president and controller in 1993. Harper received a degree in communications and political science and an MBA in finance – both from the University of Pittsburgh. A native of Pittsburgh, Harper and his wife, Janet, have two children. He will be relocating to New York. Osborn, 59, joined Macy’s Home Store in August 2005 after serving as president and chief operating officer of San Francisco-based Macy’s West since 2002. He began his retailing career in the data processing area at Bullock’s, then a division of Federated, in 1974. He became vice president of operations for Bullock’s in 1984 and in 1989 moved to Burdines as senior vice president of operations. In 1993, Osborn was named executive vice president of administration at Stern’s, then a separate division of Federated. He was named president and chief operating officer of Burdines in 1994 and president of Macy’s West in June 2002. Osborn is a Southern California native and graduate of California State University with a degree in economics. Macy's, Inc., with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York , is one of the nation's premier retailers, with fiscal 2006 sales of $27 billion. The company operates more than 850 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy's and Bloomingdale's. The company also operates macys.com, bloomingdales.com and Bloomingdale's By Mail. Prior to June 1, 2007, Macy's, Inc. was known as Federated Department Stores, Inc.