Jack Mitchell

Chairman and CEO of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs

September 7 th

“HUG YOUR CUSTOMERS” IS TITLE OF TALK BY WESTPORTER JACK MITCHELL,

Westporter Jack Mitchell, Chairman and CEO of Mitchells/Richards/Marshs, will speak at our first meeting of the season on Thursday, September 7th. The title of his talk is “Hug Your Customers”, in which he will talk about the proven way to personalize sales and achieve astounding results. The meeting begins at 10AM at the Saugatuck Congregational Church, 245 Post Road East.

Jack, a graduate of Staples High School, received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.A from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1969, he joined the family business, Ed Mitchell, Inc., founded by his parents, Ed and Norma, now called Mitchells of Westport. In 1995 Mitchells acquired Richards of Greenwich, the leading men's clothing store in Greenwich, Connecticut and August 2006 added Marshs of Huntington, Long Island, New York.

Jack's responsibilities are fundamentally strategic, keeping the family together and synergistic and maintaining strong positive relationships with customers, clients and vendors. Jack spends Saturdays and busy times on the selling floor.

Under his leadership, Mitchells and Richards are committed to providing exceptional customer service and high quality merchandise in an exciting, friendly and visually dynamic atmosphere. Richards received the honor of store of the year for 2000 in the annual Retail Design Awards competition held by the National Association of Store Fixtures Manufactures (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 and most recently the Individual Achievement award from CancerCare of Connecticut. Within the fashion industry, Jack has held leadership positions in the International Menswear Group and Apparel Forum. In 2003 and again in 2005 Harvard Business School profiled the Mitchell family business and Jack has had the honor of attending the Executive Management courses when the paper was presented as part of the Family Business Program and MBA program.

In its eighth printing of Jack's first book, “Hug Your Customers, The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results” over 120,000 copies are in print. In HYC Jack outlines a series of principles that can be adopted by any company to gain a larger share of current customer business and to attract new customers.

For three consecutive months “Hug Your Customers” enjoyed the recognition of being on BusinessWeek Business Best Seller list, and had a run on The Wall Street Journal Business Books Best Seller List. “Hug Your Customers” has received positive reviews in The New York Times Business Books section and The Wall Street Journal . In 2004 “Hug Your Customers” was published in the United Kingdom (including Australia), Brazil, Columbia, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Russia and Estonia.

Known as a passionate enthusiastic public speaker, and listed with many prominent speakers bureau's, Jack and has been invited to make keynote presentations regarding his “Hug Your Customers“ philosophy to diverse audiences around the globe including: NIKE, Payless ShoeSource, Starbucks, MassMutual, Midas, Prudential Realty, J.Jill, Hewlett Packard, Conde Nast Magazines, Altagamma Group in Italy, Luxury Marketing Council , Fairchild Publications CEO Summit, ProfitLogic, Swedish Textile & Clothing Industry Association, and Young Presidents Organizations. Jack has appeared on The NBC Today Show, and Kudlow & Cramer TV shows as well as numerous radio interviews.

Currently, Jack resides in Wilton, Connecticut with Linda, his wife who is the Women's Merchant for Mitchells/Richards/Marshs. Together they raised four sons, Russell, Bob, Todd and Andrew, who hold senior positions within the Mitchell family business.