Hudson's Bay Co (HBC.TO) on Thursday named former J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) executive Edward Record as its chief financial officer, effective Aug 28.

Hudson's Bay and other large retailers are struggling to reinvent themselves amid an industrywide upheaval, blamed in part on changing shopping trends that have seen shoppers migrate online.

Last month, U.S. activist investor Jonathan Litt ratcheted up pressure on Hudson's Bay by threatening it would consider a push to remove some directors at the company unless drastic steps were taken to make more money off its assets.

Litt — who also controls Land and Buildings — had asked HBC to consider going private and pushed for the company to sell its Saks Fifth Avenue brand, considering it more as a real estate investment, rather than just a department store.

BNN reached out to Land and Buildings, but the activist investor declined to comment on the news. 

Record, who had been J.C. Penney's CFO for more than three years, succeeds Paul Beesley. The company had said in May Beesley would resign.

During his tenure, Record helped improve Penney's capital structure, reduce its debt leverage and improve its credit rating, Hudson's Bay said.