Steven S. Fishman
Chairman
Chief Executive Officer
President
Steve Fishman is chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Big Lots, Inc., a Fortune 500 retail corporation with annual revenues of $5 billion. The company operates over 1,400 Big Lots Stores in the 48 contiguous United States and nearly 90 Liquidation World and LW stores in Canada. Big Lots offers consumers a wide range of extreme value-priced merchandise, including brand-name closeouts, seasonal products, food, furniture, housewares, toys, and gifts.
Fishman joined Big Lots in July 2005. A 37-year veteran of the retail industry, Fishman provides the strategic direction for Big Lots’ long-term growth, which includes building the company’s buying organization, increasing brand recognition, and maximizing earnings potential. His extensive retail experience, financial expertise, and merchandising skills positioned him for his post. Before Big Lots, he served as CEO/president and chief restructuring officer of Rhodes Furniture, leading the national retailer through a successful reorganization to improve operating performance.
Prior to Rhodes, Fishman was the chairman, CEO, and CRO of Frank’s Nursery & Crafts, a lawn and garden specialty retailer, where he was recruited to accomplish similar repositioning objectives. Under his leadership, Frank’s dramatically improved profitability, emerged from bankruptcy, and completed a public offering in less than a year.
From 1993 to 1999, Fishman served as chairman and chief executive officer of Pamida, formerly a publicly held general merchandise discount retailer. During his tenure, Pamida developed a strategy to compete in an increasingly challenging retail environment, grew sales and profit, and delivered significant returns for shareholders. In 1999, Pamida was acquired by ShopKo Stores.
Fishman’s experience also includes senior executive merchandising positions with Federated Department Stores and May Company. He is active in many community initiatives and serves on the board of The Columbus Partnership. Fishman received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the business turnaround category in 2009, and was named Retailer of the Year by SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology in 2010. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from Columbia College. In addition to his studies, Fishman proudly served six years in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1969 to 1975.
