Management

Brown Shoe Company has made four strategic additions to the leadership team within its American Sporting Goods division, appointing James M. Hoff as vice president, sales, across all ASG brands; Alan Vickers as vice president, international; Brad Little as vice president and brand manager, Avia and Nevados; and Jorge Cabrera as vice president, athletic product development.

Ashley Stewart, a manufacturer of plus-size apparel, announced that its board of directors has appointed Celia Clancy as president and CEO. "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead Ashley Stewart, with its iconic brand in plus-size fashion and deep heritage in the urban community," said Clancy.

PC Connection announced that Timothy McGrath has been promoted to CEO. McGrath will succeed co-founder Patricia Gallup, who will continue as executive chairman of the board of directors and also serve as chief administrative officer, overseeing corporate governance and administration.

Despite leaving the company five weeks ago, Shoebuy.com founder and former President and CEO Scott Savitz led a session at this week's eTail conference in Boston where he detailed the steps the online footwear retailer took to grow into one of the most successful online brands, averaging more than 8 million visitors to the site monthly and realizing gross margins in excess of 43 percent for those visitors.

Online lingerie retailer BareNecessities.com announced that it's named Jay Dunn as its new chief marketing officer. Dunn was the former vice president/chief marketing officer of Lane Bryant and the man behind the company's controversial "Red Bra" campaign that was banned from ABC for being "too sexy."

Sexual assault and rape are a far too common part of life for the women working at Classic Factory in Jordan, making clothes for Target, Hanes, Macy's and other companies. For years, female workers have been filing rape complaints against three of the managers, but the managers haven't been fired.

No doubt about it, the job recovery has all but hit a standstill. Job growth has slowed to a trickle (only 57,000 private sector jobs in June) and to make matters worse, the summer seemed to bring a flurry of layoff announcements from some of the country's largest companies.

Monica Woo will be joining Sears Holdings as vice president and chief marketing officer for Sears on Aug. 15. Woo will be responsible for directing the overall marketing, brand and advertising programs for Sears. Prior to Sears Holdings, Woo served as chief marketing and strategy officer for FreshDirect. In this role, she was responsible for all revenue generation, merchandising and operations of FreshDirect’s web and mobile stores.

If you work for Amazon, the tax obsession means you need permission to visit certain states, and might not be able to send certain emails when you get there. In some instances, you won't even be able to identify yourself as working for Amazon.com. Amazon employees have been shown a color coded map of "bad states," according to the Wall Street Journal, and been made to consult with company lawyers before visiting any.

In a notification to Connecticut’s labor department, J.C. Penney said it will lay off 442 workers at its distribution center in Manchester, Conn. According to the notice, the company is closing the facility's dot-com unit. Employees' last day will be Sept. 30.