Nealon Named CIO of JCP

NEW YORK – Thomas Nealon will join J.C. Penney Co. as executive vice president and chief information officer on Oct. 2. He succeeds Steve Raish, who left the firm in April, and reports to Mike Ullman, chairman and chief executive officer.

Nealon’s duties will include the design and development of company systems and the development of jcp.com, the e-commerce web site.

Nealon was most recently with EDS, where he worked on assignment as senior VP and CIO of Southwest Airlines, where he supervised a transformation of all business operations, including southwest.com and other customer interaction. Prior to that, beginning in 2000, he was a partner at Feld Group, an IT management consulting firm later acquired by EDS. He spent 15 years with Frito-Lay Inc. prior to joining Feld and rose to the position of CIO at the firm.

In a statement, Ullman commented, “Information technology is a critical component to our continued success and it plays an integral role in all aspects of our business. We are confident that Tom’s expertise, coupled with his vast understanding of customer relationship management, will be particularly valuable as we focus on being a leader in performance and execution in support of our long-range plan for growth.”

Nealon said that new technology will help Penney’s become “even better positioned to serve the needs of its customers, to make its business more efficient, and to plan for the future with greater precision.”