#Paul McCartney weighs in on JCPenney CEO search

Paul McCartney wants JCPenney to get by with a little help from his friend.

The former Beatle recently introduced his longtime buddy and retail honcho, Herbert L. Becker, to the new owners of the bankrupt department store, suggesting him as a candidate for the CEO job, The Post has learned.

McCartney made the introduction via email to Jamie Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands Group, a brand licensing firm that has deals with scores of celebrities and which recently bought JCPenney along with the mall operator Simon Property Group, two sources close to the situation said. 

A brief phone call between McCartney’s friend — a retired magician who performed on television and at Radio City Music Hall before hanging up his wand in 1978 — and the owners has already taken place, one source said.

It’s unclear why McCartney got involved, but he appears to have acted as an intermediary on behalf of Becker, who he’s known for decades, sources said. The former Beatle also has ties to Salter, according to sources.

Salter declined to comment for this story. Neither McCartney nor Becker returned requests for comment.

The top job at the ailing retailer, which filed for bankruptcy in May, became vacant on Dec. 31, when the new owners ousted CEO Jill Soltau, who’d been at the helm since 2018.

Becker was a senior executive with the Canadian department store T. Eaton Company Limited, which ceased operations in 1999. He was also CEO of an upstate New York department store chain called Patrick Hackett Hardware, which was founded in 1830 and has been defunct for about 15 years.

When he was gunning for the top job running the Trump Taj Mahal in 2015, he told The Deal that he has “decades of turnaround” experience, pointing to his stints as an advisor to teen retailer Wet Seal, La Curacao – a department store – and Kohl’s during the companies’ turnaround or expansion periods.

“This is exactly what I do best,” he told the publication. “I come into a situation that seems hopeless and where there are thousands of people depending [on a change]. I am ready for that challenge … and three years from now people will look at this as the turning point.”

Becker’s name has been floated in connection with the Plano, Texas-based JCPenney before. When JCPenney was searching for a new CEO after firing Ron Johnson in 2013, Becker was one of several people who were potential fits, according to a Huffington Post article at the time.

Becker, 65, is also the author of books on magic and was sued by David Copperfield in 1994 for allegedly revealing Copperfield’s illusion secrets in “All the Secrets of Magic Revealed.”

As for his chances of leading JCPenney, one source close to the retailer said the owners are not even close to making a hiring decision.