Hibbett Sports CEO steps down, replaced by the company’s chief operating officer

Hibbett Sports CEO steps down, replaced by COO

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Retailer Hibbett Sports Inc. said Chairman and CEO Mickey Newsome will give up the CEO’s job and be replaced by the sporting goods chain’s chief operating officer next Monday.

The new CEO, Jeffry O. Rosenthal, is also the company’s president. He was vice president of merchandising and marketing before his current jobs, and held executive jobs with another retailer, Champs Sports, from 1981 to 1998.

Newsome will become executive chairman on Monday, the company said.

Newsome rose through the company, starting as a retail clerk, store manager and regional manager. He was named president in 1981 and became CEO in 1999 and chairman in 2004.

For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2009, the most recent for which figures have been disclosed, he was paid a salary of $525,000 — a boost of 19 percent in two years — plus $590,625 in incentives, and stock and option awards that the company valued at $647,484 when they were granted.

The Birmingham company operates stores in strip centers and malls in smaller cities in the Southeast, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

Its shares closed Wednesday at $24.50, down 16 cents, before the news broke of the change in CEOs. They were unchanged in extended trading.

They have ranged from $13.48 to $24.87 in the past year.