The first three years of Jill Timm’s role as chief financial officer of Kohl’s Corp. were far from traditional.
Headlined by a global pandemic, followed by two attempted board takeovers, some might call it baptism by fire. Standing on a foundation of experience, Timm took those challenges in stride.
“Having 20 years of experience here helped me feel very confident to make decisions – and you didn’t have time to second guess yourself,” she said, recalling the pandemic’s onset when Kohl’s was forced to temporarily shut down its entire store base, ultimately contributing to a loss $163 million in 2020.
Timm joined the Menomonee Falls-based retailer in 1999 as a senior financial analyst and worked her way up through the company’s finance department before becoming CFO in November 2019.
Navigating the pandemic right out of the gate prepared her for a different yet equally as tumultuous battle against a group of activist investors who attempted to take control of Kohl’s board in 2021, and again in 2022. While both campaigns resulted in shareholders voting in favor of the company’s incumbent leadership, the experience proved to be a test of strength.
“I had to be really confident in what I knew was the right answer, in what we were moving forward with,” Timm said. “I’m a much stronger person and more confident leader because of it.”
Over the course of Timm’s career, Kohl’s has expanded from a Midwestern department store chain with only 200 locations to a national omnichannel retailer with 1,171 stores in 49 states and a $5 billion e-commerce business.
With each phase of growth, Timm found new opportunities to advance her career, all while keeping pace with a rapidly changing retail landscape and constantly evolving consumer demands. Timm says she thrives in this fast-pace, high-pressure environment: It’s a key part of what made Kohl’s a “great match” at the start of her career and why she’s still at the company 24 years later.
Steering the ship
Today, Timm sits among nine executives who currently make up a relatively new C-suite at Kohl’s. Six of those – including CEO Tom Kingsbury and president and COO Dave Alves – took their respective posts within just the past year. With her proven track record as CFO, building on 24 years of institutional knowledge about Kohl’s and the apparel retail industry at large, Timm has claimed her place as a leader among leaders.
She sees her role on the executive team as somewhat of a mentor as well as a reference point for the company’s current long-term growth objectives, most of which Timm helped set in motion within the past few years under former CEO Michelle Gass.
Timm isn’t afraid to acknowledge the reality of doing business in a volatile market that feels the impact of everything from the weather to gas prices. She often tells people that retail is “not for the faint of heart.”
Last year, Kohl’s reported a net loss of $19 million and sales decrease of 7.1% as a result of inflationary pressure on consumers. Macroeconomic conditions have since improved, but the first quarter of this year still saw net sales drop 3.3% year-over-year, and earnings were flat at $14 million.
But Timm is encouraged by the company’s shorter-term initiatives, such as expanding its partnership with beauty chain Sephora into 850 stores by year’s end; tapping into home décor, impulse purchases and gifting as potential new revenue drivers; and keeping prices low at a time when value is paramount in the minds of consumers.
She’s also optimistic about what’s ahead for Kohl’s under what she described as a “fresh, new” leadership team that brings new ideas to the table. Tapping into the minds of fellow executives is also part of how she continues to develop and grow in her own right.
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Jill Timm
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Setting an example
Even as Kohl’s has grown, its culture has maintained a “small-company feel,” said Timm, which has allowed her the freedom to put family first – even in instances when it wasn’t especially convenient, like the time she chaperoned her daughter’s fifth grade field trip to the Wisconsin State Capitol during quarter close.
“Not an ideal time for someone in finance to be on a school bus going to Madison,” she said, but upholding a commitment to her daughter was more important. “And there was never a moment that I felt like that was the wrong choice. Kohl’s didn’t make me feel that way, I didn’t make myself feel that way. … My daughter also plays basketball, and I will tell you, I don’t miss a game.”
By openly demonstrating her priorities, Timm aims to uphold a standard for other working parents at Kohl’s, especially those who might be struggling with the pressure of balancing work and home life.
At the same time, she continues to be an example for her daughters, now 17 and 20, of what’s possible.
“Being a CFO as a woman is not something you see a lot, so really breaking that glass ceiling for them. I think now they know the sky’s the limit, which is fantastic,” Timm said.
Timm describes mentorship as one of her passions, largely as a result of the people who have mentored her throughout her career. These days, she keeps in touch frequently with Wes McDonald, who served as Kohl’s CFO from 2003 to 2017. His guidance was particularly impactful during the pandemic and remains so today as Kohl’s continues to navigate an ever-changing retail landscape and macroeconomic headwinds. She attributes McDonald’s influence not only to her passion for developing the next generation of leaders, but also to her own success.
“Without his mentorship, without his pushing me, I don’t know that I’d be sitting in the seat today because you have to build that confidence and to have someone sitting in this seat telling you that you can do this definitely helps,” she said.
In today’s world of hybrid work, in which random run-ins at the cafeteria or post-meeting conversations are harder to come by, Timm has had to adjust her approach to shepherding in the next generation of workers, including the finance department’s 15 summer interns this year. She makes a point of attending happy hours and team gatherings so she can stay visible and approachable. She regularly meets with the interns in groups of five leading up to their final presentation at the end of the summer.
“I think the younger generation is really the future of this organization and my job is to help them be ready for those positions, so the more I can act and be part of that the better,” Timm said.
