Tory Burch was honored Monday night with the inaugural Retail Excellence Award from The Wharton School’s JH Baker Retailing Center in recognition of her industry leadership in supporting women entrepreneurs.
Guests hosted at the Rainbow Room in New York included Jay Baker, retired chairman and director of Kohls Corp; Jeff Rader, co-founder and co-CEO of Harry’s; Todd Kahn, CEO of Coach; Kering America chief Laurent Claquin; Revlon CEO Debra Perelman; Ryan Breslow, founder and executive chairman of Bolt; Jill Granoff, Managing Partner, Eurazio; Steven Sadov, former President and CEO of Saks Inc.; Joe Gromeck, former President of New School and former CEO of Varnako Group; Wolverine Worldwide CEO Brendan Hoffman and Bank of America Vice President of Global Markets Hayley Bosky.
The event marked the start of Wharton’s 2022 CEO Summit on March 1. The theme of the day-long event is “Values + Purpose: Leading the Neo-Renaissance”, featuring mission-driven leaders and companies.
Burch, who founded her namesake brand in 2004 with a boutique in New York City on Elizabeth Street, has created unique retail environments that feel like a home. Today it has 345 stores worldwide, including its new global flagship on Mercer Street in New York City, and sells at 3,000 department and specialty stores globally.
From the outset, Burch has made social responsibility a priority, and in 2009 she started the Tory Burch Foundation to advance women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship by providing access to capital, education and digital resources.
Mina Fader, Jay Baker, Panos Leonardos, Tory Burch, Robert Isen, Patty Baker and Tom Robertson.
Getty Images for The Wharton School’s Baker Retailing Center and Retail Leaders Circle
During cocktail hour, Baker said that he did J.H. Baker Retailing Center was founded when no students at the University of Pennsylvania were going into retail, and they realized they needed to cultivate the next generation of retail leaders. What started with five students now has 150 to 200 students a year.
Accepting his award, Burch, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, said, “As a Penn graduate, it is especially meaningful to be recognized by the Wharton and J. H. Baker Retailing Center. I have a lot of confidence. The school where I also hired a Wharton graduate, Pierre-Yves Roussel, and then I married him, and he’s my CEO.
Burch said it was difficult to measure the impact the pen had on him. While heWharton not only studying business and retail as an undergraduate, Penn College of Arts and Sciences is where she learned all-around critical thinking and tapped into her entrepreneurial side.
Being an art history major, it helped her to see everything through a creative lens and to be open to different perspectives. “Art is solid proof that there will always be another idea, there will always be another point of view. This applies to almost everything, including fashion, retail and building business,” she said.
He believes that “the market is never saturated if you have a unique vision.”
When Burch started his company, he set out to create luxury products that were aspirational, yet accessible—pieces that were missing in his own wardrobe. She said that she also wants to create a foundation for women. “It was in my business plan from day one. How do you build a company that can really transform mobility for women? Especially women entrepreneurs,” she said.
as a worker Mother, she said that she understands the obstacles women faced and are still struggling today. “I realize that I was lucky to have more access than others. I wanted to bridge the gap and help more women fulfill their dreams,” she said.
She said her views didn’t resonate with everyone at first, especially potential investors—many of whom were men. “One told me never to mention business and purpose in the same sentence, and another described it as charity work. But their skepticism made me stronger.”
He said the theme of the summit was “a reminder of how far we have come.”
birch said One in two entrepreneurs is a woman but receives only 2.3 percent of the venture capital. “With Bank of America Commitment of $100 Million” [to the Tory Burch Foundation]We’ve given nearly $75 million in loans to more than 4,800 women entrepreneurs and we’re just getting started,” Burch said. The foundation’s next Embrace Ambition Summit will take place on June 13 at Lincoln Center.
“Embracing my ambition has been part of my journey since I started the company nearly 18 years ago,” Burch said. He said he is also committed to bringing men into the conversation. “I’m sure many of them are fathers of ambitious daughters,” Burch said.
Burch said that from the very beginning, it was her dream to demonstrate how good it is to do good for business. He believes the foundation can help the bottom line, and “customers around the world are joining our mission, and it’s great to see that our employees are being inspired as well… . The business for this is undeniably strong.”
“There is an old saying that cash is king. Well I say, if cash is king, culture is queen,” said Burch.
For more stories:
Tory Burch RTW Fall 2022
Tory Burch to be honored by Wharton’s Baker Retailing Center, The Retail Leadership Circle
Fearless Fund Teams Up with Tory Burch Foundation and The Cruz
Originally published at Pen 18
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