To end Ron Johnson’s tortured 17-month tenure as J.C. Penney’s chief executive, the embattled retailer is turning to the man who ceded his seat to Mr. Johnson amid pressure from activist investors.
Myron E. Ullman III, a veteran retail executive who led J.C. Penney for seven years, must now try to revive the fortunes of the company he left last year. Under Mr. Johnson, shares in the retailer have tumbled more than 52 percent.
Mr. Ullman was leading J.C. Penney when the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and Vornado Realty Trust suddenly emerged as big shareholders in 2010.
Mr. Ullman had been taken by surprise, given how quickly Pershing and Vornado materialized with a 27 percent stake in the department store company. But he began briefing Pershing’s William A. Ackman and Vornado’s Steven Roth over several months, inviting them to the company’s headquarters in Plano, Tex., before eventually giving the two board seats in January 2011.
Speaking of those conversations, Mr. Ullman told DealBook then that Pershing and Vornado had adopted a “take the high road†approach that was, in his words, “constructive.â€
But Mr. Ullman was on his way out nearly six months later. The board â€" spurred on by Mr. Ackman â€" poached Mr. Johnson, then Apple’s much-lauded head of retail, as its new chief.
