PLANO, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
Mike Ullman, who guided JCPenney through challenging times, died Aug. 6. He was 77.
Ullman died in Colorado, where he had retired. The cause of death was not revealed but he had long dealt with a medical condition affecting his motor skills, SBG Media reported.
Ullman was CEO of Plano-based JCPenney twice: his first stint ran from 2004 to 2011 and then he returned to the same role from 2013 to 2015 to help orchestrate a turnaround.
On his first go-around, Ullman was credited with crafting a partnership with beauty products maker Sephora and with making JCPenney more inclusive, Retail Dive reported. He also steered the company through the Great Recession.
When he returned a couple of years after being pushed out, Ullman restored some of the discounts and sales JCPenney had been known for, and helped the company shore up its finances.
Beyond JCPenney, Ullman was a board member and later chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He also spent more than 20 years on the board of Starbucks, becoming chairman after Howard Schultz retired in 2018.
Earlier in his career, Ullman briefly led Macy's and was CEO of DFS Group, the travel retail business of European fashion giant LVMH.
