Former JCPenney CEO Mike Ullman dies at 77, twice leading the beleaguered department store (2024)

Prolific retail executive and former CEO of Plano-based JCPenney Myron “Mike” Ullman died Tuesday at the age of 77. His career took him to the highest levels of the shopping world with major roles at Macy’s and LVMH as well.

Ullman led JCPenney from 2004 to 2011 and then was brought back from 2013 to 2016, tabbed to run the department store chain through difficult stretches when the established retail world underwent major upheavals with the growth of big-box competitors and online retailing.

Ullman, who was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1946, briefly led Macy’s department stores in 1994 before it was acquired by Federated Department Stores. After that, he headed to luxury giant LVMH as chairman and CEO of DFS Group (Duty-Free Stores).

“He was the model of servant leadership,” said Don Stephens, founder of Mercy Ships, a floating hospital charity that Ullman later championed. “Anyone that can save JCPenney twice knows what they are doing in business.”

Ullman came to JCPenney in 2004 and added new brands including Sephora as the chain faced a rapid national rollout from Kohl’s and declining mall traffic. JCPenney and other mid-market retailers were hit hard by the Great Recession and struggled to recover.

In a move to modernize the chain and bring it into the 21st century under pressure from activist investor Bill Ackman, JC Penney’s board replaced Ullman with former Target and Apple Store executive Ron Johnson in 2011. Johnson infamously tried to blow up the company’s discounting and sales model, a move that blew up itself. The company brought Ullman back just two years later.

“There weren’t two or three executives walking the face of the earth at the time that could have saved Penney,” said Ullman’s successor, JC Penney CEO Marvin Ellison,in 2016. “Without question, Mike is one of the key reasons that the company still exists.”

Ullman had many other illustrious stops during his career. He spent six years as a director and then the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, spent another 20 years on the board of directors of Starbucks.He was eventually tapped as Starbucks chairman when longtime leader Howard Schultz retired in 2018. He led the powerhouse cafe and coffee company through two years as chairman and retired in 2021

“I just can’t sit back and be a bystander when I see something this despicable going on,” Schultz told The Dallas Morning News in 2013. “Mike Ullman came back, showing courage and conviction, to save a company that Bill Ackman and Ron Johnson nearly destroyed.”

In an email to the Dallas Morning News, Schultz called Ullman “the best mentor a young entrepreneurial CEO like me could have ever had.”

“Mike was a man of grace and integrity” Schultz said. “He was a servant leader who made everyone around him better. I loved him dearly.”

Stephens, who stayed close with Ullman through retirement as they both lived in Colorado, said the retail executive never actually “retired” and remained involved with numerous nonprofits as a board member and with other companies as a business adviser. He also had a stint as chairman of the National Retail Federation. Stephens credited Ullman with major fundraising and strategy changes at Mercy Ships that allowed the charity to buy a ship of its own for $126.5 million without any debt.

“His mind was in business,” Stephens said. “He was always thinking and strategizing. He was also a great listener and was not afraid to say he was wrong. That’s not something you see often of people in his position.”

Ullman’s family is planning a celebration of life in September in Montrose, Colo., where he retired. He is survived by his wife Cathy Emmons Ullman, their four sons Cayce, Tryan, Peter and Kyrk and two daughters Maddie and Kwynn, among other siblings and grandchildren.