Toys R Us liquidation marks bitter end for CEO David Brandon

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misidentified the type of meeting where the CEO’s speech took place.

From marketing services to pizza to college sports to toys, David Brandon's career has followed a circuitous and ultimately turbulent path.

The journeyman CEO who tried to reinvent himself as a turnaround artist at Toys R Us ultimately failed to save the iconic American retailer.

Although perhaps the chain's destiny was already sealed by the time Brandon became CEO in 2015 — that's still up for debate — Toys R Us fatally crashed Thursday when it announced plans to close all of its U.S. stores.

For Brandon, 65, the retailer's implosion is a punctuation mark on a chapter that was supposed to re-establish his legacy as a no-nonsense business executive with sharp financial acumen.

"I am devastated that we have reached this point," Brandon told corporate staff in a speech at company headquarters, a recording reviewed by USA TODAY Network's The Record in Bergen County, N.J., revealed. 

He had proclaimed in the autumn that "Toys R Us is here to stay."

After a peculiar and unsuccessful turn as athletics director at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, Brandon left unceremoniously in 2014. After taking the job — his first in high-stakes athletics management — Brandon faced criticism over his supposedly brusque treatment of fans, ticket price hikes, marketing miscues and other issues. When he exited, the Wolverine football program was flailing, and alumni were clamoring for change.

Before Michigan, Brandon earned a smattering of praise for his leadership as CEO of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino's Pizza and, previously, as CEO of media and marketing services firm Valassis. But Domino's enjoyed most of its success after he relinquished his post.

A former bench-warming Michigan football player for legendary coach Bo Schembechler, Brandon once said he had his sights set on becoming an "All-American in business," according to author John U. Bacon's book Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football.

"The notion that David Brandon is a business whiz — the facts are not supporting that," Bacon said Thursday in an interview.

But with Toys R Us, "it would be entirely unfair to pin all of that on Dave," Bacon said. "This thing was a sinking ship with a ton of water on board before he took the helm."

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Joshua Friedman, an analyst at Debtwire, which specializes in bankruptcy insights, said Brandon shouldn't take all the blame for the Toys R Us collapse but also shouldn't escape blame.

"That they eventually made their way to bankruptcy isn’t the most surprising thing," especially considering the company's significant debts and abysmal recent sales, Friedman said.

Still, the implosion of Toys R Us serves as a warning for how a CEO's best intentions can fall short. The company fell apart despite Brandon's efforts to execute a plan to invest in digital infrastructure, which was badly needed to compete with rivals such as Amazon.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September and thought it could survive by closing a few hundred stores and slashing debt.

Toys R Us said Brandon was not available for an interview Thursday.

Brandon's initial appointment was partially orchestrated by private equity firm Bain Capital, which owned Domino's for a period under Brandon's tenure before the company went public.

In that respect, the chain's failure marks a double whammy for Bain — the company suffered bitter losses with the Toys R Us bankruptcy, and its favored son failed to save the day.

The demise of Toys R Us calls attention to what could have been for Brandon.

Long active in conservative politics and fundraising, he was once considered a potential candidate for governor in his home state of Michigan. Through his Bain connections, he became close to Mitt Romney.

But Brandon ultimately chose to take the University of Michigan athletics job, applying his business credentials to sports operations in a pivot toward professionalism that left many fans bitter.

When he took the job, Brandon told USA TODAY, "I'm not in the old-school model of the guy who's always in charge. My style is more interactive, more consensus building."

But, he added, "I have no problem calling the play" and expecting his employees to carry out their duties.

This time, the game clock ran out with no time left for any more plays.

Can Brandon reinvent himself again? As chairman of Domino's Pizza since his departure, he has presided over the chain's stunning expansion and digital ordering growth. The company claimed recently that it had taken over the slot as the world's biggest pizza chain from Pizza Hut.

But much of the credit for Domino's rise has flowed to Brandon's successor as CEO, J. Patrick Doyle, who recently left after a meteoric rise in the company's stock price.

Bacon said he would not be surprised to see Brandon resurface as CEO of another company within a few years.

"I’d be surprised if Dave remains on the sidelines. His personality seems to be to drive him to do something else. He’s highly connected and he has a ton of money," Bacon said. "As we’ve seen in the CEO world, failing upward works very well. It seems to be more of a club than a meritocracy."

David Brandon bio

Age: 65.

Current job: CEO, Toys R Us.

Past jobs: CEO of Domino's Pizza, athletics director of the University of Michigan, CEO of Valassis Communications.

Other roles: Current chairman of Domino's and member of the boards of DTE Energy and Herman Miller; past member of the board of Burger King, Northwest Airlines and TJX.

Contributing: Kevin McCoy

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.