Tiffany COO And CFO James Fernandez To Retire, Ralph Nicoletti Named CFO

(RTTNews) - Luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. (TIF) said Wednesday that James Fernandez, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the company, will retire in July. Tiffany named Ralph Nicoletti as its next executive vice president and CFO. Nicoletti's appointment will become effective on April 2, 2014.

Upon Fernandez's retirement, Tiffany will eliminate the title of chief operating officer. Instead, Tiffany's senior vice president of global operations and customer service as well as the senior vice president of manufacturing, diamonds and gemstones will report directly to Michael Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer of Tiffany.

Nicoletti, aged 56, will be based in New York and responsible for the company's worldwide financial functions and information technology. He will report to Kowalski.

Nicoletti joins Tiffany from health services and insurance company Cigna Corp. (CI), where he last served as executive vice president and CFO till July 2013. Prior to that, he was executive vice president and CFO at Alberto Culver, and held various financial management positions at Kraft Foods Group Inc. (KRFT).

Fernandez has been CFO of Tiffany since the resignation of the previous chief financial officer in November 2013. He had also served as CFO from 1989 to 2011. Fernandez, aged 58, is a 30-year veteran of Tiffany and has been Tiffany's COO since 2011.

In Wednesday's regular trading session, TIF is trading at $93.03, up $0.36 or 0.39 percent on a volume of 154,348 shares.