Charming Shoppes and a paradox

The president and chief executive of women's clothing marketer Charming Shoppes (best known for its Lane Bryant brand) resigned on July 9, effective immediately.

As Dorrit Bern headed out the door, the chairman of the board, Alan Rosskaum, said what one is expected to say at such times, "We just came to an agreement that Dorrit built a wonderful platform for the company, but this was an apropriate time for the leadership change."

Ms Bern may have helped stimulate this leadership change with some of her recent cost-savings measures. She's closed 150 underperforming stores.

Also, dissident shareholders waged a successful proxy fight in recent months -- successful in the sense that forced a settlement that put two of the dissidents' nominees on the eleven-seat board.

Here's where things get a bit paradoxical. During the peak of that proxy campaign, Ms Bern was also chairwoman of the board, as well as CEO and prez. The dissidents made a point of this and of their desire to separate the roles (a common bone of contention in proxy fights these days -- we've discussed it in this blog before).

In late June, soon after the settlement, the company seemed to have conceded that point. It did separate those roles. Ms Bern stepped down as chairwoman, and Mr. Rosskaum became the chairman.

But was that point made or unmade? The separation lasted only two weeks. Then Ms Bern left, as aforesaid, and the chairman, Mr. Rosskaum, announced that he is the "interim" chief executive, pending a search. So those two posts are re-united. An "interim" position, after all, can last a long time.

And perhaps as Peaches and Herb would say, "it feels so good."