Target Corp. chief executive Brian Cornell now has his A-team in place.
The final pieces came together Tuesday with the announcement he hired Mark Tritton, a senior executive at Nordstrom Inc., to be Target's next chief merchandising officer, ending a search that took nearly a year.
The position is a key one for the Minneapolis-based retailer whose brand reputation is built around its cheap-chic offerings. But in recent years, the company had lost some ground to fast-fashion retailers and others in terms of its style edge. So a big part of Tritton's task will be in helping Target reclaim its Tar-zhay mantle by being the company's chief arbiter of style.
He will do so by overseeing Target's buying, product design and development, sourcing, and store displays. He will also be in charge of Target's grocery department, which is in the midst of a multiyear transformation. He starts June 5.
"It's probably the most important role" aside from chief executive, said Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst for Edward Jones. "If you don't have the right merchandise, you're not going to have the traffic to drive sales."
Target also said Tuesday that Jason Goldberger, president of Target.com, will join the retailer's C-Suite in the newly created position of chief digital officer.
Goldberger, who came to Target three years ago after working at Gilt Groupe and Amazon.com, will take on some of the digital responsibilities that previously fell under the chief merchant position.
With these two appointments, Cornell has filled all of the major holes in his senior leadership team with an equal mix of external and internal hires. Of the 12 executives who now report directly to him, four were hired from outside the company and four others were promoted from inside. Among the other prominent recruits to his team are Mike McNamara, who was lured from British grocer Tesco to be chief information officer, and Cathy Smith, who came from Express Scripts to be the finance chief.