Management

When Urban Outfitters CEO Richard Hayne nominated his wife Margaret to its all-male board, it set off a firestorm of controversy. The state treasurer of Connecticut may have put it best, calling it "cynical," an "insult" and "bogus," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. A company that caters much of its products to women should probably have more women making top-level decisions.

Life is going swimmingly for Karl-Johan Persson, H&M's young, handsome CEO. Despite the global recession, the cheap-chic retail chain is doing well. But the recent factory collapse in Bangladesh has put H&M in the focus, even though it, as Persson points out, didn't use the factory. In an exclusive interview with Metro at H&M's headquarters in Stockholm, Persson proposes a new solution: a tag added to every piece of clothing informing the customer whether it was made in a safe factory.

Pitted against consumer outrage over controversial comments its CEO made seven years ago about why the teen retailer doesn't make its clothing in large sizes, Abercrombie & Fitch issued an apology this week and pledged to take steps to show their commitment against bullying as well a more welcoming store culture.

The popular Build-A-Bear Workshop removed links to Twitter and Pinterest from its homepage, following an investigation by a unit of the Better Business Bureau. The company also revised an apparent glitch that allowed children under 13 to circumvent a feature aimed at preventing them from entering personal information without their parents' consent. The moves were announced this week by the Better Business Bureau's Children's Advertising Review Unit, which said it

In his first conference call with analysts since retaking the CEO position at J.C. Penney, Mike Ullman said the struggling retailer would restore private labels as part of its rebound strategy.

A plan by Amazon.com to open one or more warehouses in Florida fell apart when the online retailer was unable to negotiate an agreement with the state on sales tax collection. Gov. Rick Scott’s office announced the end of the deal but declined to

A listing for a bloody mannequin has disappeared from Amazon after feminists complained it was promoting violence against women. The activist group UltraViolet collected 63,000 signatures on a petition to get rid of the shooting target designed by Zombie Industries that bled when shot and was chillingly called "The Ex." The first 10,000 signatures appeared within the first 30 minutes of the campaign, the organizers said. "It's obvious why that struck a nerve with people," UltraViolet co-founder Nita Chaudhary told SocialTimes.

As Wal-Mart prepares to anoint the fifth chief executive in its history, the world's largest retailer is grappling with challenges founder Sam Walton never faced. Wal-Mart's board has identified international chief Doug McMillon, 46, and Bill Simon, 53, who runs the U.S. operations, as leading candidates to succeed Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke, according to a person familiar with the situation. While Duke, 63, isn't expected to step down immediately, Wal-Mart may

On the heels of the recent tragedy in Bangladesh, American Apparel CEO Dov Charney has a message for the rest of the retail industry: It's time for change. "The apparel industry's relentless and blind pursuit of the lowest possible wages cannot be sustained over time, ethically or fiscally," Charney wrote in a recent message. "As labor and transportation costs increase worldwide, exploitation will not only be morally offensive and dated, it will not even be financially viable."

The CEO of online, members- and invitation-only shopping site RueLaLa, which features private sale events from brands including Fendi, James Perse and Kate Spade, has left the company, Mass High Tech has learned. Ben Fischman, who joined Boston-based Retail Convergence Inc. in 2001 and led the launch of RueLaLa and acquisition of SmartBargains Inc. in April 2008, stepped down from his role as CEO at the company. Steven Davis, RueLaLa's president, is taking over as CEO. Employees were told of Fischman's departure and change in leadership on Monday afternoon.