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Belk’s New CEO Has a California Connection
Lisa Harper, who has been named the new chief executive of Belk department stores, starts her new job on July 5. She was most recently the chief executive of Hot Topic Inc.
For five years, Harper headed the teen retailer, based in the City of Industry, Calif., and will remain on Hot Topic’s board of directors.
In her new job, Harper is replacing Tim Belk, who is retiring from the family-started department-store chain, based in Charlotte, N.C., after joining the company in 1981 as a management trainee. He has been CEO since 2004.
“After managing through the ownership transition and filling a number of key management positions, I’ve decided this is an opportune time for me to retire as CEO of Belk,” Tim Belk said.
Harper is a North Carolina native who worked on the selling floor of Belk as one of her first jobs. She was CEO of the children’s retailer Gymboree Corp. from 2001 to 2006 and worked for retailers such as Limited Too, Esprit de Corp., GapKids, Mervyn’s and Levi Strauss.
Belk, with 293 stores in 16 Southern states, became last year a portfolio company of Sycamore Partners, a New York private equity firm. Sycamore’s other investments include Aéropostale, Coldwater Creek, Dollar Express, Hot Topic, Nine West Holdings, Talbots and the Kasper Group.
