Target now has a new CEO: 55-year-old Brian Cornell.
Cornell is no stranger to retail. He just resigned from PepsiCo’s food business last week, but he’s also served as Walmart’s Sam’s Club Division head. Prior to that, Cornell worked as the CEO of Michaels Stores and was the Chief Marketing Officer at Safeway. Cornell assumes the Target CEO position after the company forced Gregg Steinhafel to step down due to the hacking scandal that took place around Thanksgiving 2013.
Target has expressed confidence in Cornell and believes that it has the right man for the job. The company said in a statement that Cornell’s “diverse and broad experience in retail and consumer products and his passion for leading high performing teams will propel Target forward.”
Target’s still under the gun for the Thanksgiving 2013 security breach in which the card account numbers of 40 million users were hacked from Target’s so-called secure server through what many believe to be a basic Wi-Fi connection. Since the Target breach last Fall, Target has struggled financially. The company’s Q1 2014 profit fell 16 percent, reduced by far more than company assumptions. Over the last 12 months, Wall Street’s witnessed Target stock decline by 14 percent. In addition, Target’s Canada ambitions to expand its retail presence in North America haven’t been so successful, either. Since Target expanded into Canada, the company’s lost $1.5 billion in sales.
