A retailing legend takes another shot

(Fortune) -- Sally Frame Kasaks' star soared in the early 1990s, when she was named chief executive of Ann Taylor, becoming one of the first women to run a multi-million dollar retailer. Then she was fired, and all but disappeared.

Now Kasaks, 63, is back, thrust somewhat unwillingly into the spotlight by events at two companies on whose board she sits, prompting renewed scrutiny of her management style and track record.

In September, Kasaks assumed the post of lead director of the Children's Place (Charts), after the Secaucus, N.J.-based company ousted its longtime CEO and chairman amid questionable circumstances. Four months earlier, she was named CEO of Pacific Sunwear (Charts), an Anaheim, Calif.-based retailer of surfing-inspired clothes that had struggled for years. Kasaks had acted as interim CEO since October, when Pacific Sunwear fired its former chief, and only reluctantly agreed to take on the position permanently, sources said.

"She's certainly got her hands full," said Kirk Palmer, who runs an executive search firm and has known Kasaks for more than a decade. "It's tough for her right now, being the CEO of a West Coast company that needs a lot of work, and also playing a more hands-on role at the Children's Place, which is taking more time than she expected."

Throughout her career, Kasaks amassed a reputation as a talented merchant and a strong leader, a style that fans called decisive and detractors said could border on the abusive. Critics said she is prone to uncontrollable outbursts and has a tendency to demean subordinates, sometimes by using fowl language or calling them stupid.

Her supporters, and there are many of them, said she has a unique ability to articulate a vision for a brand and create products that fit within that image. But even her fans concede that she's had as many hits as misses. "She's been doing an excellent job at Pacific Sunwear," said Adrienne Tennant, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. "But overall her track record is mixed."

Kasaks declined to be interviewed for this story.

Over the course of more than two decades, Kasaks rose quickly through the retail ranks. She became president of Ann Taylor in 1983, and then left to run Talbots two years later. When the Japanese retailer Jusco, now known as Aeon, bought Talbots from General Mills (Charts, Fortune 500) in 1988, Kasaks abruptly resigned. Reports at the time suggested her management style clashed with that of the new owners.

She went on to run Abercrombie & Fitch from 1989 to 1992, but the retailer, which was formerly owned by Limited, really blossomed under her successor Mike Jeffries, who is the current CEO.

Kasaks, who is 5 foot, 10 inches and the daughter of a former model, has an autocratic management style, according to people who have worked for her. When she returned in 1992 to Ann Taylor (Charts) as CEO, she instituted weekly Monday night meetings that ran from 4 p.m. until 11 p.m. Those who displeased her were treated to a barrage of fowl language. Once, she threw a chair across the room, when an executive failed to meet his sales plan, according to someone who was there.

"She was a screamer," said another person who has worked for her. "She would throw people out of her office. She would go off the deep end."

Not all of her former colleagues found her management style tyrannical. "She knew how to motivate people," said Joann Fielder, who spent five years at Ann Taylor and is now the chief of design at United Retail Inc., which operates the Avenue chain. "The sales associates adored her."

After some initial success refocusing Ann Taylor on classic styles of blazers, sweaters and suits, Kasaks stumbled. The board fired her in 1996, following a string of sub-par earnings and sales.

"I coined the term Hero Bum Syndrome after Sally," Palmer, the recruiter, said. "Wall Street loved her and then hated her."

For the next decade, Kasaks worked as a consultant and sat on a handful of boards, including Coach and Tuesday Morning. As a director of White House, she helped arrange the 2003 sale of the company to Chico's.

Kasaks abrasive management style alienated directors of Cortefiel, a Spanish retailer, on whose board she sat from 1997 to 2005. "Spanish men are macho and Sally was like a bulldozer," said one person familiar with the board's thinking.

Those who criticized Kasaks did so reluctantly, saying they were hesitant to tarnish one of the few women who had climbed to the executive suite. But they also noted that her behavior went beyond that of a demanding CEO. "I've worked for Less Wexner (Limited (Charts, Fortune 500)) and Mickey Drexler (Gap (Charts, Fortune 500), J. Crew (Charts)), who were both tough bosses, and they never demeaned me the way she did," said a former employee.

In her current role at Pacific Sunwear, Kasaks moved quickly to clear unsold inventory and reinvigorate sales of girl's apparel. Recently announced plans to close the company's One Thousand Steps chain and put its flagging demo division up for sale have won kudos from Wall Street. "She's taking steps to build a foundation for a more solid business," Tennant, the analyst, said.

As for the Children's Place, the situation remains murky. The recently ousted CEO Ezra Dabah, who was found by the board to have violated company policy by failing to disclose several changes in ownership of Children's Place stock, wrote a letter to Kasaks accusing her of seizing power and disparaging his reputation.

People who have spoken with her say they do not believe there was anything sinister afoot, beyond the board taking steps to reprimand a CEO whose judgment they considered lapsed.

But Kasaks clearly isn't telling the whole story. When asked about the Children's Place recently by a friend, Kasaks joked: "Someday I'll write the book."