Facing a gender discrimination case, Signet Jewelers’ CEO retires for ‘health reasons’
Virginia ‘Gina’ C. Drosos will replace Mark Light as chief executive
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell.
Mark Light, the Signet Jewelers chief executive at the center of a sprawling gender-discrimination case, will retire due to “health reasons” and be replaced at the end of this month, the company said Monday.
Virginia “Gina” C. Drosos, who has served on the company’s board since 2012, will fill his role as CEO.
Light was named CEO in 2014 and worked for 35 years at the retail-jewelry conglomerate, best known for its brands Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Kay Jewelers. His tenure has been marked by an ongoing class-action arbitration case originally filed in 2008.
Sworn statements in the case allege that top male managers dispatched scouting parties to stores to find female employees they wanted to sleep with, laughed about women’s bodies in the workplace and pushed female subordinates into sex by pledging better jobs, higher pay or protection from punishment.
A company chairman in March called those accusations a “purported parallel universe.” The statements also allege that Light and other key executives promoted women based upon their responses to sexual demands, attorneys for the women said in a 2013 filing.
Company spokesman David A. Bouffard said Light, 55, decided to retire “due to his need to address his health issues.”
The company canceled an investor meeting in early June due to Light’s health issues, and he has “required multiple hospitalizations and a couple of surgical procedures” for his condition, Bouffard said. The condition is serious but not life-threatening, he added, and “it will require time and attention to ensure complete recovery.”
Light earned about $7.4 million in salary, stock and bonuses in the last fiscal year, up from $2.4 million in 2014. Company filings show that his retirement package will include a full year of salary and a lump sum of his annual bonus, as well as $200,000 in health benefits, $975,000 each on the second and third anniversaries of his retirement, $50,000 for retirement-planning services and $50,000 for “legal fees incurred in connection” with his retirement agreement.
Light was a veteran of the jewelry giant, and his father Nathan Light had previously served as chief executive of Sterling Jewelers for two decades.
Who is Virginia “Gina” C. Drosos?
Drosos formerly served as president and chief executive of Assurex Health, a “personalized medicine company” founded in Ohio in 2006. She also spent a portion of her career working for the Proctor & Gamble brand Global Beauty Care. During her tenure there, Fortune recognized her as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2010 and 2011.
Drosos said in a statement that she is “committed to successfully executing our strategic priorities.” Bouffard said the board “unanimously supported her selection and has complete confidence in her ability to drive the company forward and deliver value to our stakeholders.”
