Genesco, a specialty retailer, has announced several executive leadership moves in the last few weeks, including the appointment of a new chief accounting officer and a new general counsel.

On Oct. 31, Genesco announced the appointment of Brent Baxter as vice president, chief accounting officer. He succeeds Paul Williams, who recently announced his retirement after 42 years with the company.

Baxter joins Genesco with 30 years of accounting and financial leadership experience, mostly with publicly held companies and public accounting firms. Since 2017, he served as group vice president, controller, and principal accounting officer for Sally Beauty Holdings. Prior to that, he was senior vice president, controller and chief accounting officer for Stein Mart from 2014 to 2016; vice president accounting, treasury and corporate controller for PetSmart from 2006 to 2014; and vice president and controller for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from 2003 to 2006. Baxter began his career as an auditor with KPMG.

New general counsel

Additionally, on Oct. 16, the company announced the appointment of Scott Becker as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, effective as of Oct. 23. He succeeds Roger Sisson, who retired from Genesco earlier this year.

Becker joins Genesco with more than 30 years of legal, financial, and administrative leadership experience. He comes to Genesco from Nissan Group of North America and Latin America, where since 2006 he served in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility.

Since 2009, he was a senior vice president with responsibilities for Nissan’s legal, government affairs, finance, strategy. and administration. During this time, he served on the executive management committee and as member of the boards of directors of Nissan North America, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation (NMAC), Nissan Canada, and Nissan do Brasil. Becker’s responsibilities included oversight for all legal affairs and government relations for Nissan in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. In addition, he served as lead administrative and financial officer for the region. From 2006 to 2009, he served as Nissan’s general counsel, corporate secretary and vice president, legal and government affairs.

New CEO

Most recently, on Nov. 4, the company announced the appointment of a new CEO. Mimi Eckel Vaughn, currently senior vice president and chief operating officer, has been named Genesco’s next president and chief executive officer, effective Feb. 2, 2020, the start of the company’s new fiscal year. In addition, Vaughn was elected to Genesco’s board of directors, effective Oct. 30, 2019. Vaughn will become Genesco’s 12th president and chief executive officer in its 95-year history.

 

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