MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
August 13 – August 20, 2009 Edition
Borders Names Three New Zone Vice Presidents
ANN ARBOR, MI/Authorlink News/08/11/09– Borders Group has named three new zone vice presidents to lead its store operations teams nationwide. Mike Steele is zone vice president for the West Coast region; John Melnick is zone vice president for the Northeast and Dave Marsico is zone vice president for the Midwest. The Southeast is led by existing zone vice president Bill Christensen, who has held that post since 2007. All zone vice presidents report to Senior Vice President, Operations Steve Davis and all are responsible for managing a network of district managers and store managers with a focus on creating and maintaining an outstanding customer shopping experience.
"Nothing is more important than the experience our customers have in our stores," said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall. "This includes everything from offering compelling titles that are well organized and easy to shop to consistently executing customer service standards and marketing initiatives. It is critically important to have the right leadership in place to assure that our stores deliver a great customer shopping experience while also operating efficiently. I'm confident in this team's ability to get us there and look forward to their contributions."
Steele, 39, is a 22-year Borders veteran who joined the company in 1987 as a bookseller at Waldenbooks in Oklahoma City. He was promoted throughout his career to district manager for Waldenbooks and Borders Outlet; senior manager of logistics and operations for the company's seasonal calendar business, and most recently served at Borders Group headquarters as director, store operations.
Melnick, 47, has extensive retail experience, serving for the past four years as zone vice president for Michaels Stores, Inc., where he was responsible for nearly 180 stores with sales of $800 million. He earlier was a district manager for Michaels, and previous to that, served as a general manager with Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse and in several positions over a 17-year career with Service Merchandise Co., including senior district manager.
Marsico, 59, also has a deep retail background, serving for the past four years as market director for leading Midwest grocery retailer Meijer, where he oversaw 10 stores with sales of more than $750 million. Prior to Meijer, Marsico was with Kmart Corporation for 18 years in a variety of leadership roles including vice president of the Super Kmart Center division.
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is a leading retailer of books, music and movies with approximately 25,000 employees worldwide. Through its subsidiaries, the company operates more than 1,000 stores primarily under the Borders and Waldenbooks brand names and offers online shopping through Borders.com. For more information about the company, visit http://www.borders.com/aboutus.
