NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 27, 2026--
Genesco (NYSE: GCO) announced today the appointment of Tomas Petersson as president of schuh, the Company’s U.K. business selling branded footwear to the youth consumer. Petersson succeeds Colin Temple, who is retiring after a successful 38-year tenure with the business.
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A proven consumer brand and omnichannel executive, Petersson brings extensive high-impact global leadership experience across multi-branded footwear retail businesses with a focus on youth culture. Most recently he was Foot Locker’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMEA, leading the company's largest international business, and previously served as Foot Locker’s Global General Manager of atmos, the company’s premium sneaker business, among other senior executive roles with Foot Locker, INTERSPORT and PUMA.
Petersson will join schuh in late July. He will work closely alongside Temple over the coming months to ensure a seamless transition and provide continuity for schuh’s people, partners, and customers.
“I am honored to join schuh and the Genesco family at such an exciting time. I would like to thank Andy Gray and the leadership team for the opportunity and the confidence they have placed in me. Colin and the team have built an outstanding business with a unique culture, exceptional people and strong brand partnerships,” said Petersson. “I look forward to building on that foundation, accelerating growth, strengthening our footwear strategy, and delivering an even better experience for our customers, colleagues and brand partners.”
An industry veteran, Temple has been an integral part of schuh for nearly four decades, including the last 15 years as president. Joining the business as a merchandiser in 1988, he worked his way up to managing director in 2002, before being named president of schuh. Under Temple's leadership, schuh strengthened its position as one of the U.K.'s leading footwear retailers, building market-leading omnichannel capabilities, deep and trusted brand partnerships, and a distinctive retail experience for customers. He leaves behind a business with a strong foundation, well positioned to continue growing both on the high street and online.
"Colin's leadership has helped shape schuh into one of the U.K.'s leading footwear retailers, and I want to thank him for his extraordinary contributions to the business for nearly four decades. He leaves behind a strong team, a distinctive brand and a business that is well positioned for continued success,” said Andy Gray, Journeys Global Retail Group CEO. “As we look ahead, Tomas' international experience and proven ability to grow retail businesses make him the right leader to build on that momentum while advancing our shared strategy across the Journeys Global Retail Group.”
“I have every confidence that Tomas is the right person to lead the business into its next chapter. Serving as schuh president has been the privilege of my career. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved, and I want to sincerely thank the people at schuh for their dedication, hard work and friendship,” said Temple. “While I look forward to the next chapter, I leave knowing the business is in great hands and has a bright future ahead.”
Petersson will report directly to Gray. Journeys Global Retail Group brings together U.S. footwear retailer Journeys with schuh and Canada’s Little Burgundy under a unified leadership structure, uniting Genesco’s youth-focused footwear businesses.
About Tomas Petersson
Throughout his career, he has built broad expertise across merchandising, retail operations, brand partnerships and commercial strategy, with a proven track record of driving growth and strengthening retail businesses. Petersson joins schuh from Foot Locker, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMEA, leading the company's largest international business. Previously, he held senior leadership positions at Foot Locker, including Global General Manager of atmos, the company’s premium sneaker business, and served as Vice President and General Manager, Asia for Foot Locker. Prior to joining Foot Locker, Petersson served as Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Board Member at INTERSPORT Sweden and held several international roles at PUMA.
About schuh
schuh is a leading omnichannel fashion footwear retailer for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, offering sought-after brands and its own-label collection in adults’ and kids’ stores across the UK and Ireland. Underpinned by its Same, But Different brand platform, schuh remains a progressive leader in the footwear market. It is known for its inclusive atmosphere, seamless shopping experience, standout service and positive social and environmental impact through its Do More Good strategy. For more information, visit www.schuh.co.uk.
About Genesco Inc.
Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) is a footwear first company with distinctively positioned retail and lifestyle brands and proven omnichannel capabilities offering customers the footwear they desire in engaging shopping environments, including more than 1,200 retail stores and branded e-commerce websites. Its Journeys, Little Burgundy and Schuh brands serve teens, kids and young adults with on-trend fashion footwear that inspires youth culture in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Johnston & Murphy serves successful, affluent men and women with premium footwear, apparel and accessories in the U.S. and Canada, and Genesco Brands Group sells branded lifestyle footwear to leading retailers under licensed brands including Wrangler, Dockers and Starter. Founded in 1924, Genesco is based in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information on Genesco and its operating divisions, please visit www.genesco.com.
Tomas Petersson, schuh
Colin Temple, schuh
CAIRO (AP) — Mediators have achieved progress in efforts to get the United States and Iran back to negotiations and avert an all-out war in the Middle East, two regional officials said Monday, with a pause in attacks coming after a period of rapidly escalating tensions.
The comments came after neither the U.S. nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three straight days — a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.
The two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regional talks, said mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan were working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran to return to an interim ceasefire deal that had been largely undermined by recent exchanges of fire.
The U.S. has paused attacks after targeting Iranian coastal areas and infrastructure in a nearly two-week escalation sparked by Iran’s firing at ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil shipments. The Pentagon did not respond to questions.
U.S. President Donald Trump is “giving talks some space. He’s giving it a little bit of room,” Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News.
Waltz dismissed the idea that the U.S. stockpile of interceptors crucial in defending against Iranian attacks is running low, but experts have questioned how long both the U.S. and Iran can afford to keep up attacks.
Since the U.S. has halted attacks for the past two nights, Iran has as well, its army spokesperson told Iran’s state TV on Sunday. Tehran in recent days has counterattacked against countries in the region hosting U.S. military forces, killing at least three service members at a base in Jordan and one in Iraq.
One of the regional officials who spoke to AP Monday described the progress made in mediation efforts as “significant.” He said mediators were working with Iran and Oman on a mechanism for managing vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the flashpoint for the latest strikes and counterstrikes.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said during a news conference in Tehran Monday that mediators were conveying messages but there were no direct negotiations.
“Mediators may convey messages to us from the American side regarding ongoing developments in the region. But at present, we have no negotiations with the American side,” Baghaei said.
He said Iran and Oman, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, had already held talks on Friday and Saturday on how to manage ship traffic through the waterway.
“The objective is for Iran and Oman, as the two coastal states, to develop mechanisms to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting the sovereign rights and sovereignty of both coastal states, as well as Iran’s security and national interests” Baghaei said. However, he stressed that the waterway remains closed.
Tehran has asserted that the interim deal with the U.S. allows it to manage shipping on the waterway for now, and it has objected to U.S. efforts to support a route that passes close to Oman instead. The strait was considered an international waterway before the war.
The U.S. military on Saturday said its recently reimposed naval blockade against Iran continued, with a dozen commercial ships redirected, two disabled and two boarded. U.S. forces “remain highly vigilant, focused, lethal, and ready,” it added.
The 60-day period established by the interim deal in mid-June is now well into its second half, and major issues that were meant to be negotiated — notably Iran’s nuclear program at the heart of tensions — remain set aside as mediators try to keep both sides talking.
Concerns continue about shipping through another crucial waterway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last week threatened a blockade of Saudi shipping there, and fired on at least one Saudi tanker, setting it alight.
Global energy supplies and the economy remain in the balance as gasoline prices have risen again.
Commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was at a three-week low, a maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, adding that no new attacks had been confirmed in the past 72 hours. It said traffic remained steady through the Bab el-Mandeb.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to travel to the United States and meet with Trump in Washington on Tuesday, his office has said. They last met in Washington in February, weeks before they launched the war on Iran that killed senior leaders including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah fired at Israel two days after the war began, and Israel responded with airstrikes and ground forces in southern Lebanon. Since then, the U.S. has supported landmark direct talks between Lebanon and Israel to try to calm that front and find a way to disarm Hezbollah.
Separately, Baghaei slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he said over the weekend that Ukraine had struck “vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran” in the Caspian Sea.
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Ukraine’s strike on an Iranian vessel had killed a sailor.
In a statement on X, Araghchi denounced the attack as a “blatant U.N. Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.” He said he made it clear in calls with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the attack “can’t go unanswered.”
Iran is an ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine, helping Moscow build up its drone expertise.
Speaking during the news conference in Tehran Monday, Baghaei said that “all parties that consider themselves in some way supporters of the Ukrainian regime must be held accountable.”
He said Zelenskyy’s “behavior is reminiscent of the anarchists who, on the eve of World War I, carried out theatrical and highly dangerous actions whose repercussions engulfed all of Europe.”
Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press reporters Cara Anna in Lowville, New York; Darlene Superville and Ben Finley in Washington; and Jill Lawless and Emma Burrows in London contributed.
FILE - An oil tanker approaches the new Jetty during the launch of the new oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)
FILE - Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP,File)
