Millard "Mickey" Drexler
Doctor of Humane Letters
Millard "Mickey" Drexler, the son of a New York garment-district buyer, grew up in the Bronx. As a teenager, he worked in the garment industry while attending the Bronx High School of Science. He graduated from SUNY-Buffalo and then earned a Master of Business Administration at Boston University in 1968. While a student here, he found his first full-time position in retail, a merchandising internship at Abraham & Strauss.
His experiences at Abraham & Strauss and later at Bloomingdale's and Macy's led him away from the department store business. He saw that specialty clothing stores could offer high-quality products to consumers and also could give management an opportunity to set standards and pursue strategies independent of their competition.
Mr. Drexler engineered a business turnaround at Ann Taylor while serving as president and CEO there from 1980 to 1983, taking the company from an unprofitable 25-store chain to a profitable 55-store operation. Mr. Drexler spent the next 18 years at Gap, Inc., where he was named president in 1987 and CEO in 1995. While he was in charge, the company grew from $400 million to $14 billion in annual sales. In the process, Mr. Drexler brought dramatic changes to American retailing, applying his eye for detail to product lines, merchandising, advertising, and all other aspects of the business.
In 2003 he invested in and became chairman and CEO of J.Crew Group, Inc. Over the past five years, he and his team have brought new inspiration to the J.Crew brand, taking it public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2006. At a time when other retailers are experiencing falling sales and profits, J.Crew stands out with steady and healthy growth, increasing popularity among consumers, new offshoot stores, and a stock value that has more than doubled in the past two years.
While at BU, Mr. Drexler met his wife, Peggy, a graduate of the College of Communication. They are co-founders and trustees of the Peggy and Millard Drexler Foundation, which provides support to programs in education in the arts, child development, and human services, among other fields.
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