Kohl’s names Elliott Rodgers chief operating officer, citing retail operations expertise

Kohl’s is putting its stores, supply chain, procurement and loss prevention under one operating roof, handing Elliott Rodgers a job that reaches from distribution centers to nearly 1,200 storefronts. Rodgers will report to CEO Michael J. Bender when he takes over as chief operating officer on Sept. 9.

The assignment says a lot about where the retailer thinks pressure is building. Kohl’s said Rodgers will oversee enterprise operations, including its store base, global supply chain and distribution centers, procurement and loss prevention. For store-level workers, that usually translates into more discipline around receiving, replenishment, inventory counts and the handoff between the back room and the sales floor.

Rodgers arrives with a background built around operations rather than a single retail lane. He was most recently chief operations officer at Foot Locker, where he led technology, supply chain, procurement, customer care, operations strategy and enterprise transformation. Before that, he was chief people officer at project44. From 2013 to 2021, he held leadership roles at Ulta Beauty that included chief supply chain officer and chief information officer. He also spent six years at Target in distribution and omnichannel operations and three years as a vice president at Citigroup.

Kohl’s is not making this move in a vacuum. Bender said in March that the company would focus on optimizing its roughly 1,150 existing stores, and he said more than 90% were already profitable after the chain closed 27 stores last year. In its fourth-quarter 2025 results, Kohl’s said it was protecting replenishment receipts and increasing in-stock levels after fall business underperformed, signaling more scrutiny on how product flows through the network and how quickly gaps on the shelf get fixed.

Loss prevention is now part of that same command structure for a reason. Kohl’s annual report warns that inventory shrinkage from theft or damage can hurt results and that efforts to contain shrink may not work. The National Retail Federation said in December 2024 that retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents in 2023 compared with 2019, along with a 90% increase in dollar losses from shoplifting. It also said shrink accounted for $112.1 billion in industry losses in 2022, up from $93.9 billion in 2021.

For Big Lots workers, the message is plain: retailers are rewarding leaders who can connect stores, logistics, analytics and shrink control in one pass. Rodgers’ resume suggests Kohl’s wants sharper execution from the dock to the sales floor, and that usually means store teams feel the pressure first.