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“It is typical for undervalued and struggling companies such as Hudson’s Bay to try to position the exit of top executives as a reason for investors to give them more time to right the ship while choosing to ignore the fact that the true decision makers and those at the board level who have been complicit in the decision making remain in power,” activist investor Jonathan Litt, founder of HBC shareholder Land & Buildings Investment Management said in a statement Monday.

The other departures at HBC include chief financial officer Paul Beesley, who left in May and was succeeded in August by Edward Record; president of HBC real estate Brian Pall left in June, and Don Watros, president of international operations, left in September.

Litt, who called for a special meeting of HBC’s shareholders following the news about Storch, has been putting pressure on Canada’s oldest retailer since June to pursue options for its real estate, such as redeveloping it or selling it off. He has also encouraged a management-led buyout of the business.

HBC’s Executive Chairman Richard Baker, who reportedly has been in talks with private equity firms in a bid to take the company private, will assume the role of interim CEO when Storch leaves on Nov. 1 to return to his own consulting firm, Storch Advisors.

Lenders have become increasingly skittish about financing leveraged buyouts of retailers in a fast-transforming sector in which estimating returns is getting harder in the era of Amazon.com Inc. And while HBC has been bullish about opening new stores in markets where it sees an opportunity — the first of 20 Hudson’s Bay stores opened in the Netherlands last month and Saks Off Fifth opened five stores in Germany — the broader market has been less confident of late about bricks and mortar retail.