Caleres Elects Bruce Thorn to Board of Directors

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Caleres (NYSE: CAL) today announced the election of Bruce Thorn to its board of directors.

Thorn is currently the president and CEO of Big Lots, a $6.2B Fortune 500 company operating 1,400+ stores in the U.S. In this role he has repositioned the company’s marketplace strategy to accelerate top-line growth, increase productivity and invest for future growth. Over the past three years, he has led the growth of top-line sales by more than 17 percent and EPS by 35 percent through multiple growth initiatives. He has also been instrumental in increasing the company’s customer satisfaction and employee engagement scores to all-time highs despite massive organizational change in an unprecedented retail market.

“Bruce has a proven track record of success in strong retail brands and will bring that expertise to our board,” said Diane Sullivan, chairman and CEO of Caleres. “We value skill set diversity on our board and Bruce has extensive and relevant experience across so many areas in retail that is relatable to what we do at Caleres. This combined with actively participating in the boardroom for more than two decades will be invaluable to us and our diverse portfolio of brands.”

Prior to Big Lots, Thorn was president and COO of Tailored Brands, a $3B brand portfolio company featuring leading menswear retailers: Men's Wearhouse, Joseph A. Bank, Joseph Abboud and Moores. As president, he led the company’s retail stores, digital ecommerce, brand strategic planning and insights, information systems and global supply chain. He also gained extensive merchandising, marketing, store operations, supply chain and manufacturing experience in his roles as EVP of Store Operations, Services and Supply Chain at PetSmart and Chief Operating Officer of LESCO.

Thorn attended The United States Military Academy at West Point where he studied mechanical engineering. After graduating, he served in Germany, Italy and Iraq. He holds a master’s degree in business from the University of Cincinnati and serves on the boards of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.