John E. Kyees

CFO, Urban Outfitters

John is a 30-year veteran in the retail industry with CFO roles at several retailers.  Most recently John was CFO and CAO for bebe stores, Inc. a 185 store retailer headquartered in San Francisco, CA.  John was previously CFO for Skinmarket, a startup teenage cosmetic retailer, CFO for Ashley Stewart and CFO for HC Holdings.   

John's career began with Ford Motor Company in Detroit, MI where he was a Cost Accounting Supervisor.  Following Ford, he joined the J.L. Hudson Company, a large regional department store located in Detroit, MI.  At Hudson's he held several director roles and finally the role as the Assistant to the President.  The startup world appealed to him and he helped establish a car company manufacturing full size operational models of the 1929 Model A Roadster, which was headquartered in Battle Creek, MI.  He was CFO for 2 years.  From the Model A company, he moved to Chas. A. Stevens, a division of Hartmarx, located in Chicago, IL as the CFO.   John then became CFO at Express (Division of The Limited) in Columbus, OH.  John was part of the team that grew the business from 100 stores to 750 stores and from $70 million to $1.5 billion.  During that time they established the Structure and Bath and BodyWorks businesses.
 
John's educational background includes a BS in Business Administration from the University of Kansas and an MBA in Finance from the University of Detroit.