Federated Names Questrom Vice Chairman
Federated Department Stores Inc. said Tuesday that Allen I. Questrom, chairman of its Bullock’s/Bullocks Wilshire division, was named one of three vice chairmen of the Cincinnati-based parent.
He succeeds Donald J. Stone, 59, who will retire as a vice chairman and a director of Federated, effective Jan. 31. Stone will maintain an office in the Federated Building and will continue as president of the Federated Department Stores Foundation, which issues grants to nonprofit educational, cultural and human service groups.
Questrom, 47, who had been a corporate executive vice president, will continue as chairman of the Los Angeles-based Bullock’s group, according to a Federated spokeswoman in Cincinnati. She said Questrom was in New York Tuesday and not available for comment.
Jan E. Gray continues as president of the chain, which operates 22 Bullock’s stores and seven Bullocks Wilshire stores.
As vice chairman, Questrom will share the title, like Stone, with two other executives: John W. Burden III and Will M. Storey, who is also Federated’s chief financial officer. From 1982 until last year, Federated operated with four vice chairmen while the positions of president and chief operating officer remained vacant.
Howard Goldfeder, a former Bullock’s chairman, has been chairman and chief executive at Federated since 1982.
Norman S. Matthews, who was named Federated’s president and chief operating officer last year, will split Stone’s responsibilities with Questrom beginning next month.
Questrom will assume corporate reporting responsibility for Bloomingdale’s, Foley’s, Goldsmith’s and Rich’s department store divisions. In addition, he will maintain corporate reporting responsibility for Bullock’s/Bullocks Wilshire, Filene’s and the Children’s Place.
Matthews will assume responsibility for Ralphs, Federated’s Southern California supermarket division, Filene’s Basement and Gold Circle.
Questrom joined Federated in 1965 as an executive trainee at the company’s Abraham & Straus division. He rose through the ranks, becoming chairman and chief executive of the Bullock’s group in August, 1984.
It was his second tour of duty at the specialty chain which he left in 1978 as executive vice president to become president of Rich’s, a Federated department store chain in Atlanta.
In 1980, he was promoted to chairman and chief executive of Rich’s. He resigned from those positions in January, 1984, to take a sabbatical to travel, ski and “step away from the business and evaluate to see if it was right for me,” he said in an August, 1984, interview.
He was named an executive vice president at Federated last March. The Bullock’s division accounted for $751.8 million of Federated’s total 1986 sales of $10.5 billion.
