Playboy's Christie Hefner to Step Down

Playboy Enterprises Inc.’s Christie Hefner announced she would step down as chairman/CEO after 20 years in the job. Hefner will leave Feb. 1, 2009, and will remain a director. The company said the board is looking for a successor and that it had named Jerome Kern, a board director, partner at Enki Strategic Advisors and president of Kern Consulting, to serve as interim nonexecutive chairman.
 
“Last month marked my 20th anniversary as CEO; just as this country is embracing change in the form of new leadership, I have decided that now is the time to make changes in my own life as well,” Hefner said in a news release.
 
Hefner,