Jeff Gennette was elected chief executive officer of Macy's, Inc. in March 2017 and assumed the role of chairman in February 2018. Gennette previously held the role of president of Macy's, Inc. from 2014 through August 2017. Prior to that, he was the chief merchandising officer of Macy's, Inc., a position to which he was appointed in February 2009.
Gennette began his retail career in 1983 as an executive trainee at Macy's West in San Francisco. He held positions of increasing responsibility, including vice president and division merchandise manager for men's collections, and senior vice president and general merchandise manager for men's and children's. In 2004, Gennette was appointed executive vice president and director of stores at Macy's Central in Atlanta. During his career, he also served as a store manager for FAO Schwarz and director of stores for Broadway Stores, Inc. From February 2006 to February 2008, Gennette served as chairman and chief executive officer of Seattle-based Macy's Northwest. Gennette returned to San Francisco from February 2008 to February 2009 as chairman and CEO of Macy's West.
Gennette is the chairman of the NRF Foundation board of directors and a member of the NRF executive committee.
Gennette, a native of San Diego, is a graduate of Stanford University.
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated with the Bloomingdale's department store chain; the holding company was renamed Macy's, Inc. in 2007. As of 2015, Macy's was the largest U.S. department storecompany by retail sales. As of February 2019, there were 584 full-line stores with the Macy's nameplate in operation throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Its flagship store is located at Herald Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The company had 130,000 employees and earned annual revenue of $24.8 billion as of 2017.[1]
Macy's has conducted the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City since 1924 and has sponsored the city's annual Fourth of July fireworks display since 1976. Macy's Herald Square is one of the largest department stores in the world.[2] The flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block, features about 1.1 million square feet of retail space, includes additional space for offices and storage, and serves as the endpoint for the Thanksgiving Day parade. The value of Herald Square has been estimated at around $3 billion.[3]
