Saks COO Departs for Another Gig

RJ Cilley, the chief operating officer of Saks, has left the luxury website to become chief executive officer of Voomi Supply, a Philadelphia-based online distributor of HVAC, plumbing, heating and electrical supplies.

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Cilley held key roles at Saks and its parent company HBC for 12 years. He was instrumental in the re-platforming of Saks.com in October 2020. He led the launch of Saks.com marketplace in 2021, and further capitalized on AI to advance the digital business. He’s been chief operating officer since January 2021, overseeing the marketplace format, fulfillment, customer service, item lifecycle, international, fraud, photo studios, technology, and India operations.

Cilley’s departure appears unrelated to last week’s announcement that HBC signed a definitive $2.65 billion agreement to acquire the Neiman Marcus Group . The deal is pending approval by the Federal Trade Commission. If the government greenlights the deal, the combined Saks-Neiman Marcus entity will be called Saks Global, and Marc Metrick, chief executive of Saks, will become CEO of Saks Global. How the rest of the management is structured at Saks Global remains to be seen.

“After 12 years with HBC and Saks, RJ Cilley has made the decision to step down from his role as Saks’ COO to pursue a CEO opportunity at another company. We have a plan in place to fill the COO role,” a Saks spokesperson told WWD. “In the interim, we have our strong operations leadership in place to ensure a smooth transition. We thank RJ for all of his contributions to our company and wish him all the best in his next chapter.”

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Before becoming Saks’ chief operating officer, at HBC Cilley served as chief digital officer, and earlier senior vice president for digital, operations and new ventures. In other HBC roles, he was chief of staff and director of corporate development. Prior to joining HBC, Cilley was an investment banking analyst at BMO Capital Markets covering the food, consumer and retail sectors. Before that, he was an associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory.

On his LinkedIn page, Cilley said by shifting to Voomi from Saks, “I am doing something very different but also something similar.” Voomi marks his first CEO role.

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