J.C. Penney names new finance chief

Customers ride the escalator at a J.C. Penney store in New York August 14, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc on Thursday said its Chief Financial Officer would step down next month and be replaced by an executive with a finance background who has worked at other department stores. Ken Hannah, who took the CFO job in May 2012, will step down March 24. The company gave no reason for his departure. He will be succeeded by Ed Record, who earlier in his career worked at retailers such as Stage Stores Inc and Kohl's Corp , where he was a senior vice president of finance, and at Belk, where he was controller and a vice president of finance. (Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)