As former president and CEO of Lord & Taylor, Jane Elfers was credited for having steered America’s oldest department store back to profitability and relevance, after years of neglect from its former parent company.

Elfers became ceo in May 2000 and was succeeded by Brendan L. Hoffman on Oct. 6, 2008.

Elfers earned her BS in business administration from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. Following an executive training program at the now-defunct Bamberger’s department store chain (owned by Federated Department Stores, now Macy’s), she became a buyer for Macy’s and then joined Lord & Taylor in 1989. In two years, Elfers took over as president and chief executive at age 39.

By the time NRDC Private Equity bought Lord & Taylor in 2006, Elfers’ rejuvenation strategy for the regional chain was already under way. She closed poor-performing stores and decluttered and refocused merchandise with trendier, upscale brands.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEE LIST AT LEFT FOR THE LATEST NEWS ON JANE ELFERS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With NRDC came capital to freshen tired stores, plump up marketing and bring life to the Web site. Shoppers noticed the makeover. Sales and profits rose, after years of decline. After Federated Department Stores swapped out regional nameplates such as the locally beloved Marshall Fields in Chicago and Filene’s in Boston in 2006, alienated shoppers defected to Lord & Taylor.

Elfers, daughter of a Sears executive, is often described as straight-talker and a no-nonsense merchant. In one published report NRDC’s chief called her the “Joan of Arc of Lord & Taylor.”