J.C. Penney Names Home Depot's Marvin Ellison its Next CEO

J.C. Penney has named a Home Depot executive as its next CEO. The department store operator said Monday that Marvin Ellison, currently executive vice president of stores at Home Depot, will become president in November and CEO next August. The 49-year-old Ellison will take over the CEO post from Mike Ullman, who came back to the Plano, Texas company's helm in April 2013 after former CEO Ron Johnson left after only 17 months on the job. Ullman, who had served as CEO for seven years before Johnson's tenure, worked to stabilize the business. While he has helped J.C. Penney to get off life support, questions remain whether the stores can drive sales momentum. Ellison faces big challenges to turn around J.C. Penney and bring it back to profitability. J.C. Penney said, for the next three years, it will improve the productivity of its stores' home department, expand e-commerce and spruce up key areas like jewelry, shoes and handbags.