NEW YORK—  Department store giant Macy’s has named Univision’s Malek Robert “Bobby” Amirshahi as head of corporate communications.

As senior VP of corporate communications, Amirshahi will be responsible for leading both internal and external communications across the company, whose holdings include Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, as well as Macy’s cause work. The role also calls for driving alignment and consistent messaging across business strategy, transformation, colleague and culture initiatives.

Amirshahi will report to Danielle Kirgan, chief transformation & human resources officer, and will be based in New York. He will succeed Cheryl Heinonen, who will be leaving the company later this year to return to the West Coast.

Amirshahi is a 20-plus year veteran of the media and telecommunications industry. He currently leads Univision’s corporate communications as senior VP. Prior to Univision, Amirshahi held several public relations, corporate social responsibility and communications roles at Time Warner Cable and Cox Enterprises and its subsidiaries.

Amirshahi is joining Macy’s on the heels of a tough third quarter, during which same-store sales dropped more than 20% amid the Covid pandemic and competition from lower-cost chains such as Walmart and Target. The company is banking its long-term survival on boosting digital sales coupled with shuttering brick-and-mortar stores.