Abercrombie & Fitch's Michael Jeffries announced today he's stepping down from the helm of the teen-age apparel chain effective immediately.
Arthur Martinez, non-executive chairman, will assume the executive chairman role and preside over a newly created office of the chairman to handle day-to-day until a new chief is found.
A search of both insider and outsider candidates has begun.
Jeffries, who lost this chairman title in January, has been the source of various PR outrages following his rather intemperate remarks about body size and looks.
During a 2006 interview with Salon, Jeffries said there are cool and not-so-cool kids. "We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely," he told Salon.
Jeffries went on to say that retailers that target "everybody: young, old, fat, skinny" become "totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody either."
Abercrombie suffered 11 consecutive quarters of same-store sales decline.
The firm earned $7.4M on $2.6M nine-month sales, up fro$11.5M loss on $2.8B revenues from a year ago.
Martinez credited Jeffries for building Abercrombie into "the iconic status the brand now enjoys."
Kekst & Co.'s Dawn Dover handles he Abercrombie account. Publicis Groupe owns Kekst.
Business leaders will face challenges in the upcoming year, some of which will come as a complete surprise, or beyond anyone's imagination.
Teneo has hired Philipp Grontzki, who is a 20-year veteran of corporate communications and financial journalism, as a managing director in its strategy and communications group.
Rowan Benecke, who co-founded Zeno Group and helmed Burson-Marsteller's tech practice, has joined McKinsey & Co as director of communications for North America.
BCW has named Golin's Matt Coldagelli EVP and leader of its corporate affairs practice in Chicago.
Abby Bailey, who headed corporate communications for Fedex in its Middle East, India and Africa region, has joined Teneo as managing director in Dubai.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.