Brendan L. Hoffman was named president and chief executive officer of Lord & Taylor LLC, replacing Jane Elfers, who held the position for nine years, whose contract was not renewed. Hoffman’s appointment is effective Oct. 6.

Lord & Taylor is a subsidiary of the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company L.P., which made the announcement Friday as part of an executive reorganization. As part of the executive reorganization Mark Weikel, Lord & Taylor chief operating officer, salso will be departing the department store chain.

Hoffman will report directly to Jeffrey Sherman, president and CEO of Hudson’s Bay Company, another subsidiary of HBTC. He joins Lord & Taylor fromNeiman Marcus Direct, where he served as president and CEO.

HBTC said the executive reorganization enables the company and its subsidiaries to generate sizeable economies of scale through improved purchasing, shared services, and more efficient utilization of information technology including internet retailing. In addition, the subsidiaries will be able to benchmark and share best practices across the various organizations.

Hoffman began his retail career in the Executive Training Program at L&T. He left L&T in 1996 as divisional merchandise manager, Men’s Furnishings. He also spent two years at Bergdorf Goodman as in a similar position, before joining Neiman Marcus as vice president of its Last Call clearance division. Since 2002 he has been president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct.

He received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the Wharton School of Business with an M.B.A. in 1997. He will be relocating to New York from Dallas with his wife, Abby, and their two children. 

HBTC is a North American retailer with four divisions: Lord & Taylor, Fortunoff, Creative Design Studios, and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

JCK