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Lyn Kirby, the 56-year old charismatic CEO of Ulta, will lose her job to a newcomer from Office Depot, the company announced Monday. Ulta’s stock got creamed Tuesday on huge volume, as Thomas Weisel downgraded it from overweight to market weight.

The exec replacing her is Chuck Rubin, who becomes president and chief operating office on May 10th. The board had previously placed second-in-command execs who did not last long under Kirby. This time, it appears, the board of directors made the executive change in cement and not in Velcro.

Perhaps, the key to this move is the description of Rubin’s experience in the highly-crafted press release that says, “He joined Office Depot in 2004, as Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandise and Marketing Officer rising to President North American Retail in 2006. Prior to joining Office Depot, Mr. Rubin spent six years at Accenture Consulting in senior leadership roles including Partner.”

The press release also indicates that Rubin advised clients at Accenture across retail formats and e-commerce businesses and that he “has extensive experience building partnerships with key brands ranging from mass market to prestige in both the specialty and department store channels.”

According to sources, Kirby has relied on sales growth from new stores and the square footage added. Ulta has gone through a large number of format modifications, so much so that earlier versions have little resemblance to the larger, more prestigious stores recently launched.

Perhaps strategically, smaller, salon-oriented store fronts should be shuttered, one could argue. Or, older configurations should be revamped so the chain has more consistency. Rubin advised clients of Accenture how to make such transformations.

But, the statement in the release that says Rubin has extensive experience building partnerships “with key brands ranging from mass market to prestige in both the specialty and department store channels” might be more indicative to where the board and Kirby differed.

Last year when Ulta launched a new prestige store in Chicago, it chose to merchandise makeup by category and not by brand. This angered mass marketers who said at the time that such an arrangement tested at Sephora was a disaster in the U. S. market. Sources last summer also indicated that L’Oreal was unhappy with the arrangement.

It has been also reported that Clinique is doing a test with Ulta, and our sources say this has not been going well. Bare Escentuals was recently acquired by Shiseido. Under Leslie Blodgett, BARE opened more freestanding stores that cannibalized existing distribution, including Ulta.

Kirby is less known for finesse than confrontation with Ulta’s vendors. Her board includes large, European shareholders from Credit Suisse to a company controlled by Chanel’s Wertheimer family. (See June 5, 2008 Mottusbeauty blog.)

Bernard Arnault’s Sephora has been outstripping Ulta, perhaps irking Alain Wertheimer of Chanel, who is highly competitive with Arnault and follows the huge specialty retailer closely.

In October of 2009, Kirby announced she would be selling stock in Ulta. According to one financial website, she has sold approximately 650,000 shares for about $6.5 million in 2010. She still has 1,871,000 shares. The announcement cost her approximately $3.5 million on Tuesday.

Rubin joins the company May 10th as chief operating officer and Kirby, still CEO, will help in the transition for four months. After that, Kirby will serve on the Ulta board until March 17, 2011.