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NEW YORK - After a four-year effort to turn around Revlon, Jack Stahl has left the beauty firm's top post following some calamitous setbacks. Stahl has been replaced by chief financial officer David Kennedy.
Space losses in a number of key retailers this summer led many to wonder if Revlon's primary owner since 1985, Ronald Perelman, would make changes to top management. Kennedy, 59, is the sixth ceo under Perelman's watch, following the footsteps of Stahl, Jeff Nugent, George Fellows, Jerry Levin and Sol Levine.
But the change seemed abrupt to retailers and Wall Street, as well as Stahl's beauty industry peers, who honored the ceo last week at the Dream Ball, an annual event that benefits the American Cancer Society.
Revlon's stock price remained relatively unchanged. Shares closed at $1.41, down 1.4 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange Monday.
Kennedy could not be reached for comment.
Revlon has stated - and executives inside the company have reiterated - that Stahl left of his own volition. But the view on Wall Street is that he was forced to step down in the midst of a tough year for the firm. One industry source said that Stahl's right hand, Stephanie Klein Peponis, is expected to leave as executive vice president and chief marketing officer by October, and that a round of layoffs is slated to take place in the next several weeks. Revlon would not comment on either statement.
Stahl joined Revlon as chief executive officer in 2002 from Coca-Cola, where he was president and chief operating officer. He has worked with Kennedy for two decades and recruited him from the beverage company four years ago to...