RadioShack, hoping for a turnaround, has named Julian Day chairman and CEO. It will pay him a base salary of $1 million a year plus stock options and bonuses.
Day has worked at several large publicly traded retailers; the company said he played a key role in revitalizing Safeway, Sears and Kmart.
At Kmart, it said, Day took the company out of bankruptcy and led it to substantially exceed its profit plans. “Under his leadership, the company’s value increased from $1.5 billion to $9 billion.”
President/COO Claire Babrowski had been acting as CEO of RadioShack since February.
Former CEO David Edmondson resigned in February after less than a year in that position; he had come under scrutiny because of questions about the accuracy of his résumé, AP reported then. RadioShack has endured poor financial results and large-scale store closings.
AP quotes one analyst reacting to Day’s announcement as saying, “It took him about a year to fix Kmart; this will take him longer. RadioShack is not in bankruptcy, but it’s in dire straits and if it continues down this road, they will be in bankruptcy.”
RadioShack Names New Leader, Looks to Better Times
RadioShack Names New Leader, Looks to Better Times