Target Hires Outsider as Chief Marketing Officer

USA-ECONOMY

Target Corp named Jeffrey Jones as its chief marketing officer on Monday, bringing in an executive with experience at advertising agencies, Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) and elsewhere to fill a role that has been vacant for six months.

Jones, 44, most recently was president and a partner of McKinney, a North Carolina-based advertising agency, Target said.

Michael Francis, Target's chief marketing officer since 2008, left the retailer in October to become the new president of J.C. Penney Co Inc.

The chic discount chain said it had considered both internal and external candidates for the chief marketing officer position.

Before McKinney, Jones was chief marketing officer at Gap, where he led areas such as marketing strategy and retail store design and was president of its gift card subsidiary. He was also president and chief executive officer of LB Works, a Chicago-based advertising agency associated with Leo Burnett, and worked at Coca-Cola Co, among other companies.

Shares of Target were up 6 cents at $58.33 in premarket trading.