Following the Saks-Neiman Merger, Saks Global Unifies Its Leadership Team
Having completed their $2.7 billion merger just three weeks ago, Saks Global, composed of Saks Fifth Avenue and the Neiman Marcus Group, has announced a unified senior-level team to lead both retail banners. This new centralized team combines expertise from both Saks and Neiman Marcus, and will report directly to Emily Essner, Saks Global’s President and Chief Commercial Officer.
In her role, Essner will oversee merchandising, marketing, customer analytics, and e-commerce. She will directly report to Marc Metrick, CEO of Saks Global Operating Group. Essner formerly served as the chief marketing officer for Saks.
Aside from Metrick and Essner, Saks Global disclosed five key appointments. These will report directly under Essner and include Cheryl Han as Chief Digital Officer, Kristin Maa as Chief Marketing Officer, Paolo Riva as Chief Brand Partnerships and Buying Officer, Stephanie Salierno as Senior Vice President of Merchandise, and Nivy Swaminathan as Senior Vice President of Commercial Analytics and Customer Insights.
However, although management structures from Saks and Neiman have been merged into one team, Bergdorf Goodman remains under a separate administrative jurisdiction. Tracy Margolies who was formerly Saks’ Chief Merchandising Officer, now serves as Bergdorf’s President.
In addition to these changes, Ian Putnam will serve as the CEO of Saks Global Properties & Investments and will alongside Metrick, report to Richard Baker, Executive Chairman of Saks Global.
Emily Essner shared that to transform the luxury shopping experience, they’ve created a commercial team at Saks Global which is novel in multi-brand luxury retail. The newly constituted team is breaking new ground in how they present luxury shopping, providing personalized and carefully curated experiences for each shopper.
This large-scale buyout agreement by Saks with Neiman Marcus Group establishes a dominant luxury retail network in the U.S., encapsulating Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th. This represents an estimated $10 billion in annual sales.
Rodbaker was able to successfully close the $2.7 billion acquisition due to the backing of partners like Amazon, Salesforce, G-III Apparel Group, and Authentic Brands Group alongside $2.2 billion derived from junk bonds. Despite significant debt owed to vendors, Saks executives have assured their partners that the acquisition has delivered the company greater liquidity and that the process to address overdue payments has started.