Federated Stores Names Chief

Norman S. Matthews has been elected president and chief operating officer of Federated Department Stores, the parent company of Bullock’s and Ralphs. Matthews had been executive vice president and vice chairman.

In addition, Bullock’s Chairman and CEO Allen I. Questrom has been named executive vice president of Federated, which is based in Cincinnati.

The positions of president and chief operating officer had been vacant since 1982, when former Bullock’s Chairman Howard Goldfeder replaced Ralph Lazarus as Federated chairman. The company operated with four vice chairmen: Matthews, Will M. Storey, John W. Burden III and Donald J. Stone.

Burden, 50, and Stone, 58, will now report to Matthews, 54. Storey, 55, who is also chief financial officer, will continue to report to Goldfeder, 60, as will Thomas G. Cody, 43, senior vice president-law and public affairs, and Avner M. Porat, senior vice president-human resources.

Questrom, 46, will continue to work in Los Angeles, overseeing the 22 Bullock’s department stores and seven Bullocks Wilshire stores. Questrom will assume responsibility for Filene’s, which operates 16 department stores in New England, and the Children’s Place, a specialty retailer with 161 stores in 27 states.

Questrom, who joined Federated in 1965 as an executive trainee at the company’s Abraham & Straus division, also will report to Matthews. Among the changes, Stone was given responsibility for overseeing the operations of the Ralphs supermarket division.

“I think Matthews’ merchandising and operations strength was something (Federated) wanted more readily available,” said Edward Weller, a retail analyst with the Montgomery Securities brokerage firm in San Francisco.

Questrom “is obviously somebody who is thought of very highly in the corporation,” Weller said. “The Bullock’s division is in the forefront of the Federated divisions in upgrading systems and service,” he said.