Office Depot Shakes Up Leadership

Office Depot is expanding and creating new roles for its top employees as the company zeroes in on growing its North American business. The retailer named Steve Calkins to the newly created role of president, business solutions division. Calkins first joined the company in 2003 and has been executive vice president and chief legal officer since August 2016. In his new role, Calkins will be responsible for driving expansion in adjacencies and services among B2B customers. Evp and chief operating officer Troy Rice also was promoted to serve in a newly created role as president, retail division. Rice retains the same responsibilities for retail he had in his previous position and is charged with setting the strategic direction of Office Depot's retail offerings, transforming the customer experience and overseeing the “Copy and Print” business. He joined the company in April 2014.“With our company’s revenue evenly split between the retail and delivery businesses, it is imperative that we have strong leadership to meet our customer needs in both of these key business segments,” said Gerry Smith, Office Depot's chief executive officer, in a media release. “Both [Calkins] and [Rice] have significant experience leading these businesses, which will allow us to better leverage our integrated multichannel business model and continue to execute against our strategic initiatives.” The retailer is currently searching for Calkins’ successor to fill the role of chief legal officer, an Office Depot spokesperson told the Institute. However, the company will not have a coo moving forward.In other executive changes: Senior vp, e-commerce, Kevin Moffitt will oversee e-commerce and all digital-related activities as chief digital officer. In his new expanded role, Moffitt is responsible for transforming Office Depot’s digital platforms, driving digital strategy and innovation, and accelerating the company’s online and mobile growth. He reports to Calkins.Michael Allison, evp and chief people officer, was appointed to the new expanded role of evp, chief administrative officer. In the new role, Allison will continue to oversee human resources, communications, loss prevention and events with added responsibilities for IT, real estate and construction. John Gannfors joined the company as the retailer’s first evp, transformation and strategic sourcing. Gannfors is responsible for procurement, driving business process improvements across the company and executing on various efficiency and cost-savings opportunities. He joins the company from Lenovo, where he spent nearly 10 years as vp, global supply chain and chief procurement officer, data center group.In other business news, Office Depot is selling its China business to Shanghai M&G Colipu Office Supplies as part of its strategy to divest its international operations and focus on its North American business. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close within the next several months.

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