St. Louis, January 17--The chairman and CEO of May Department Stores Co. resigned Friday, the company said. It did not give a reason for the resignation.
Gene Kahn's departure was accepted by the retailer's board and took effect immediately. The company has launched as search for his successor.
The operator of Lord & Taylor, Famous-Barr, The Jones Store, Filene's and other regional department stores announced Kahn's departure in a brief statement. It said company president John Dunham would serve as acting chairman and chief executive.
Kahn joined May in 1990 and held various positions at the retailer, including the top posts at May's G. Fox and Filene's divisions, before being tapped to be executive vice chairman in 1997. He was named May's president and chief executive six months later in 1998.
Kahn gave up the presidency when he became chairman in 2001.
Kahn's resignation came just seven months since he helped May acquire Target Corp.'s more than five dozen Marshall Field's department stores and nine Mervyn sites for $3.24 billion -- a price many analysts panned as too steep by several hundreds of millions of dollars.
Adding the Marshall Field's sites boosted May's stable of stores to roughly 500 sites, also including such names as Foley's, Hecht's, Kaufmann's, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May and Strawbridge's. The company also operates David's Bridal, After Hours Formalwear and Priscilla of Boston stores.
The board elected Russell Palmer as its lead director, with fellow director James Kilts to head the search committee.
