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Jack Mitchell
Inducted 2008
Jack Mitchell is Chairman and CEO
of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs, a three-generation family business
that operates men’s and women’s specialty stores in Connecticut and
New York that are nationally renowned for their brilliant service
touches and strong relationships.
Jack himself has been recognized
as one of the top ten retail visionaries of his time by the Daily
News Record, one of the most widely read retail trade publications
in the country. The author of the 2003 Wall Street Journal
bestseller Hug Your Customers, Jack has just completed his second
book, HUG YOUR PEOPLE: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire, and
Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results which
Hyperion will publish in March 2008.
After completing a B.A. at
Wesleyan University in 1961 and an M.A. at the University of
California-Berkeley, Jack joined the family business, Ed Mitchell,
Inc., which was founded by his parents, Ed and Norma, and later
became Mitchells of Westport. In 1995, Mitchells acquired Richards,
the leading men’s clothing store in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in
2006, added Marshs of Huntington, Long Island, to the group. Growing
up in a close-knit family and raising four sons established patterns
of thoughtfulness and caring in Jack that blended seamlessly into
serving the public in the retail clothing business. Under his
leadership, along with his brother Bill and eight other family
members, Mitchells, Richards, and Marshs have become well known for
employee engagement and longevity and providing exceptional customer
service and high quality merchandise in an exciting, friendly, and
visually dynamic atmosphere.
In 2000, Richards received “Store
of the Year” honors in the annual Retail Design Awards competition
held by the National Association of Store Fixtures (NASFM) and
co-sponsored by VM+SD magazine. In 2001, MR Magazine, the magazine
of menswear retailing, named Mitchells/Richards Retailer of the
Year. Jack shares with his family a number of Community Leadership
Awards from the Anti-Defamation League, The Menswear Division of UJA-Federation
of New York, and Sacred Heart University. Jack is on the Yale Cancer
Board and Greenwich Hospital Board of Trustees.
Jack has become an active speaker
since 2003, keynoting at over 200 events for corporations including
Morgan Stanley, Build-A-Bear, Payless, Nike, and Harvard University
School of Business addressing audiences of all sizes and reaching
over 31,000 people with Hug Your Customers/Hug Your People
presentations
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