JCPenney Chairman and CEO Marvin Ellison resigns

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. has announced that Chairman and CEO Marvin R. Ellison has notified the company of his decision to resign from his role to pursue another opportunity with Lowe's Companies, Inc. The company added, while Ellison will remain a director and CEO through June 1, but will step down from his position as chairman of the board effective immediately.

The board of directors has elected current lead independent director Ronald W. Tysoe as Chairman of the board and has created an office of the CEO, which will be comprised of CFO Jeff Davis, CCO Joe McFarland, CIO and Chief Digital Officer Therace Risch and Executive Vice President of supply chain Mike Robbins. These four leaders will share equal responsibility for the company's day-to-day operations until a new CEO is appointed, JCPenney added.

"I want to thank Marvin for his many significant contributions to JCPenney over the past three years. During his tenure, the company retired 1.4 billion dollars in debt, renewed and enhanced its revolving credit facility and has significantly strengthened the company's financial position," said Tysoe in a statement.”

"It has been a tremendous honor leading the company as Chairman and CEO, and working alongside some of the most talented professionals in retail, I want to personally thank the entire JCPenney team for their loyalty and hard work over the years," added Ellison.

Tysoe, the company said, has extensive public company board experience serving as a director of a number of companies over the last two decades in a variety of leadership roles. In addition, he served as vice chairman of finance and real estate at Macy's Inc., formerly Federated Department Stores Inc., from 1990 to 2006. For the first seven of those years, he also served as chief financial officer of Federated. Tysoe was a member of the board of directors of Federated from 1988 to 2005. He joined the JCPenney board of directors in 2013.

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