The retailer that call itself the “Nordstrom of sporting goods” looked to Bloomingdales instead for a president & COO, a role left vacant since Joel Silverman’s departure in March of last year. Ed Holman was appointed to the post last week after resigning his position as president and chief operating officer of Federated’s Bloomingdale unit. He held a similar position at the Richs-Lazarus-Goldsmiths division prior to Bloomies.

Holman will continue with Bloomingdales through the end of August and is expected to join the Galyan’s team shortly thereafter.

Mr. Holman will be responsible for Finance, Operations, Systems, Planning and Allocation, Stores and Culture for Galyan’s. Bob Mang, Galyan’s chairman and CEO, will have Real Estate, Legal, Store Planning and Construction, Merchandising and Marketing as his reports.

The move is seen as important as Galyan’s looks to become an anchor tenant in malls, moving away from the traditional layout and locations for sporting goods stores as they emphasize their positioning as a specialty department store concept.

Interestingly, Bloomingdales has made the decision to not fill the position that Holman now leaves vacant. Michael Gould, chairman and CEO of Bloomingdale’s, said that each of the main members of the executive team will report directly to him.

Reports indicate that the decision “reflected a belief that a streamlined top management structure would be more effective for the 32-store division” of Federated.
Galyan's currently has 37 stores, and plans to have 43 by year's end, with 135 total doors planned by 2012.