In the wake of the retirement of Karen Katz as CEO of Neiman Marcus, the company has said she will be succeeded by Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who comes to the firm from Ralph Lauren.
As reported by Chain Store Age, van Raemdonck was with Ralph Lauren in the capacity of group president for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and global travel retail, and had been in charge of both digital and wholesale initiatives. He had been with Ralph Lauren since 2014, working previously at St. John Knits International as CEO.
Katz, who had been in her post since 2010, will stay on as part of the Neiman Marcus board of directors. Her tenure with Neiman Marcus stretches back 32 years.
The company itself was acquired for $6 billion in 2013 by Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Neiman Marcus has been weighed down by $4.8 billion in debt and has grappled with the continued retail shift from brick-and-mortar stores to eCommerce. The company abandoned plans to list its shares publicly last year, having filed to do so in 2015.
In one recent example of restructuring, the company decided to refocus its full-line stores, saying it would shutter 10 of its Last Call off-price stores, leaving just 37 of those locations in the Neiman Marcus pantheon.
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