Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Big Lots Taps Bruce Thorn as CEO
August 30,
2018 by Laurie Northington in Executive Changes, Industry 
Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) has announced the appointment of Bruce Thorn as president and CEO. Thorn will formally acquire the role at the end of September.
Thorn was most recently the president and chief operating officer of Tailored Brands, Inc., a specialty retailer of men's tailored clothing and men's formalwear. Following a transition period with Tailored Brands, Thorn will also be appointed as a director to fill the vacancy created at the time of David Campisi's retirement in April.
Prior to joining Tailored Brands, Thorn held various enterprise level roles with PetSmart, Inc. since 2007, most recently as EVP, Store Operations, Services and Supply Chain. Thorn's other experiences include leadership positions with Gap, Inc., Cintas Corp, LESCO, Inc. and The United States Army. He earned a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a M.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati.
"Bruce Thorn is a strong strategic thinker in addition to being an accomplished retail executive and operator," said Cynthia Jamison, chair of the Nominating / Corporate Governance Committee and of the Board's search committee. "We were fortunate to be able to consider a couple of very capable internal candidates in addition to a broad range of external candidates. Bruce's combination of strategic vision, leadership skills and history of operational success impressed all of us and the search firm that we used in the process. We believe that he will be able to build on the Company's transformation into a community retailer while also nimbly navigating the rapidly changing and disrupted retail environment."
"The entire board looks forward to welcoming Bruce to Big Lots and to his leadership,” said James Chambers, non-executive chair. “We also want to express our gratitude to Lisa Bachmann, EVP, chief merchandising and operating officer, and Tim Johnson, EVP, chief administrative officer and CFO, as well as the other members of the company's Executive Leadership Team (ELT), for their leadership and stewardship of the company during the search period of the past several months. We are confident that Bruce's addition will make an already strong and well-established management team even better."