Dive Brief:

• J.C. Penney announced Friday that Therace Risch will serve as its new chief information officer, replacing Scott Laverty. 
• Risch has served in IT leadership roles for more than 10 years, most recently with Country Financial and Target Corp. 
• Risch is the department store chain’s fifth CIO since the beginning of then-CEO Ron Johnson’s disastrous no-coupons experiment in 2011. 

Dive Insight:

After almost five years of losses since a failed experiment to wean its value-oriented consumers off coupons and price cuts, J.C. Penney is installing its fifth CIO. Therace Risch has served in IT roles with Country Financial, Target Corp., and other companies for more than a decade, managing merchandising, supply chain, and analytics, among other areas.

CEO Marvin Ellison has been quick to build a team that can make the discount department store chain relevant again, naming Target alum Mike Robbins and Michael Amend vice presidents of e-commerce and supply chain, respectively, last year. Efforts such as a buy online/pick up in-store program have helped Penney’s turn around its sales slide this year, and more omnichannel initiatives are on the way. 

"Therace is an outstanding IT professional with an extensive background of merging innovative retail technologies and powerful applications to drive both brick-and-mortar and online growth," Ellison said in a statement. "We are pleased to blend her 20 years of experience with the recently announced leaders of e-commerce and supply chain to offer a seamless omnichannel shopping experience across multiple customer touchpoints."