Tiffany CFO to take on new COO role, names new CFO

June 23 - Tiffany & Co said its longtime chief financial officer will become its first-ever chief operating officer and promoted its senior vice president of finance to replace him.

James Fernandez, who joined Tiffany in 1983 and has been CFO since 1989, was appointed to the newly created job of COO. Even as CFO, Fernandez had many operational duties such as diamond operations, real estate operations and other functions including customer service, distribution and manufacturing reporting to him.

Fernandez, 55, will be replaced as CFO by Patrick McGuiness, who was made senior vice president of finance in 2007. McGuiness, 45, will continue to oversee accounting and financial planning and also take on investor relations. McGuiness joined Tiffany in 1990.

Shares, which hit a 52-week high on Wednesday, fell 1.2 percent to $75.46 in a broad market sell-off in early trading on Thursday.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)