Ira Neimark

Ira Neimark
Ira Neimark in 2011 at a book party for 'The Rise of Fashion'
Born	Ira Neimark Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Residence	Harrison, New York
Nationality	American
Education	Columbia Business School
Occupation	Luxury retail executive, Author
Years active	1938-1992; 2006-present
Spouse(s)	Jacqueline R. Myers (m. 1953)
Children	Eugenie Neimark Lewis, Robin Neimark Seegal

Ira Neimark (born December 12, 1921) is an American author, lecturer, and former retail executive who served as Chairman and CEO of Bergdorf Goodman from 1975 to 1992. His reintroduction of French couture to New York with Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, and Christian Dior sparked a period of growth for Bergdorf Goodman, which went from $18 million in sales in 1975 to $250 million in sales by 1992. During his tenure, he expanded the women's store three times and opened the Bergdorf Goodman Men's Store in 1991 across the street from the primary location on Fifth Avenue, between 57th and 58th Streets, in New York.

Neimark was born December 12, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York and is the son of attorney Eugene G. Neimark and Lillian (Braude) Neimark. They were hit hard financially by the Great Depression; after his father's death, it led the 16-year-old Ira to seek employment in late 1938. He was hired by Bonwit Teller for "a Christmas job as a page[boy] in the store's 721 Club for men, a shop offering a sampling of the store's best items." After the Christmas season of 1938, he continued to work for Bonwit Teller as a doorboy, greeting customers as they entered the store. In 1940, he was promoted to office boy to the store president and then to the position of stock boy in 1941.

Neimark attended Erasmus Hall in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, but did not receive his diploma until 1945, after the end of World War II. His graduation was delayed due to working and to enlisting in 1942 in the U.S. Army Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet. He served in Saipan with the 20th Air Force, 498 squadron. Prior to his enlistment, he took evening classes in 1941 and 1942 at Columbia Business School. (Columbia lists him an alumnus, despite the fact that he did not earn a degree, and invited him back as an adjunct professor during 1983 and 1984; he was also a guest lecturer from 2009 to 2014.)

After his service in WWII, Neimark returned to Bonwit Teller, serving as manager of Merchandise Control, and then assistant to the president. After promotion to blouse buyer at the luxury department store, he then moved to McCreery's in New York in 1950. In 1951, he was hired by Gladdings in Providence, Rhode Island, as divisional merchandise manager for which he was paid $9,000 a year. In 1959, he moved to the prestigious G. Fox & Co. in Hartford, Connecticut, as assistant to the general merchandise manager. Soon after, G. Fox's owner, Beatrice Fox Auerbach, asked him to assume the presidency of one of the company's affiliated stores, the far less prestigious Brown Thompson. In 1967, he returned from Brown Thompson and was made vice president and general merchandise manager of G. Fox & Co. After Auerbach's death, Neimark moved to B. Altman and Company, located at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in New York, where he became executive vice-president and general merchandise manager in 1970. In 1975, he assumed the reins of Bergdorf Goodman from Andrew Goodman; it made him the first non-family-member to lead the company since its founding in 1899.