Business News Workday adds 2 VPs to its management team Pleasanton firm’s workforce, global reach expanding Workday Inc. of Pleasanton added two new vice presidents to its management team this week to support its growing workforce and global product gains. The appointments were announced by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, Workday’s co-founders and co-CEOs. Jim Shaughnessy was named vice president, general counsel and secretary of the company, which is a recognized leader in enterprise solutions for global human resources, payroll and financial management. He now oversees the company’s legal, corporate governance, Jim security and compliance Shaughnessy operations globally. Debi Hirshlag was named vice president of human resources with responsibility for talent acquisition and development, compensation and benefits, and employee engagement programs. Prior to joining Workday, Hirshlag served as vice president of worldwide HR at Flextronics, where she led its deployment of one of the world’s largest rollouts of a core HR system in cloud computing. In addition, she managed an internal team of more than 500 HR professionals,
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implemented and ran global HR shared services, and managed the site-based HR and learning systems organizations for Flextronics’ 200,000 workers around the globe. She has also held HR leadership roles at Ariba Inc., Latitude Communications, and Trimble, holding earlier career roles at Amoco Corp., Pepsi-Cola and Seagate. She holds a master’s degree in labor and in- Debi Hirshlag dustrial relations from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University. Shaughnessy has more than 25 years of experience as a strategic legal executive for companies including Compaq Computer Corp., HP, Lenovo Group Ltd., and PeopleSoft Inc. Just prior to joining Workday, he served as senior vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel at Orbitz Worldwide Inc. He holds Juris Doctor and master’s of public policy degrees from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northern Michigan University. N
Edited by Jeb Bing
Ross Stores reports sales increase of 10% for first 4 weeks of January Pleasanton-based Ross Stores, Inc. has reported sales for the four weeks ended Jan. 28 of $483 million, an increase of 10% over the $441 million in sales for the four weeks ended Jan. 29, 2011. Same store sales for the four weeks ending this past Jan. 28 grew 5% on top of 3% and 8% gains in the prior two years. For the 13 weeks ending Jan. 28, 2012, sales rose 12% to $2.398 billion, from $2.145 billion for the 13 weeks ending Jan. 29, 2011. Comparable store sales for the quarter ended Jan. 28, 2012 increased 7% on top of 4% and 10% growth in the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2009, respectively. For the 52 weeks ending Jan. 28, 2012, sales grew 9% to $8.608 billion, compared to $7.866 billion in sales for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 29, 2011. Comparable store sales for the 2011 fiscal year rose 5% on top of 5% and 6% increases in fiscal 2010 and 2009. “Sales for both January and the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 were well ahead of our expectations as our wide assortments of compelling name-brand bargains continue to appeal to today’s value-focused consumers,” said Michael Balmuth, vice chairman and chief executive officer. “Juniors, Shoes and Children’s were the strongest merchandise categories during the month, while Florida and the Mid-Atlantic were the top performing regions,” Balmuth added.
The company also announced that its board of directors recently approved a 27% increase in the quarterly cash dividend to $.14 per common share, payable on March 30 to stockholders of record as of Feb. 17. “Our strong financial position and anticipated future cash flows allow us to continue to enhance stockholder returns through both our dividend and share repurchase programs,” Balmuth said. “The higher dividend announced today represents the 18th consecutive annual increase since our dividend program was initiated in 1994.” “In addition, we are pleased to report that during 2011 we repurchased a total of 11.3 million shares of common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $450 million,” he added. “We expect to complete as planned the remaining $450 million repurchase authorization in fiscal year 2012.” Based on January sales and margin results, the company is raising its profit forecast for the 13 weeks ending Jan. 28 with earnings per share now estimated to be in the range of $.84 to $.85. These projected results would represent a 22% to 23% increase over the $.69 for the 13 weeks ending Jan. 29, 2011. For the 52 weeks ending Jan. 28, 2012, earnings per share are estimated to grow 23% to 24% to $2.85 to $2.86, up from $2.31 for the 2010 fiscal year ending Jan. 29, 2011. All share and per share figures reflect the company’s recent two-for-one stock split. N