Advisory&Board


Larry Leeds
Chairman of Buckingham Capital
Laurence C. Leeds, Jr. is the Chairman of Buckingham Capital Management, a New York equity management firm. He is also Executive Vice President and Managing Director of The Buckingham Research Group - Buckingham Capital's parent firm. Prior to Buckingham, Mr. Leeds was the Chairman and CEO of Manhattan Industries (Manhattan Shirt Company). Manhattan Industries was acquired by the Salant Corporation in a hostile takeover in 1988. Mr. Leeds received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Marcus
Former CEO of Neiman Marcus
Mr. Marcus has over 35 years experience in the marketing and retailing field, 27 of which were spent at Neiman Marcus where he served as CEO from 1979 to 1988. Since then he has advised and invested in several companies developing Internet business strategies. Currently, Mr. Marcus is a senior advisor to the Peter J. Solomon Company and serves as a director of three public companies: Zale Corporation, Michaels Stores, and Fashionmall.com. He is also a director of GiftCertificates.com, The Castling Group, and Tactice Technology Group. Mr. Marcus is a graduate of Harvard College and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Howard Socol
CEO of Barneys New York
Mr. Socol has been CEO of Barneys since 2001. Prior to this, Mr. Socol also held positions as CEO of J. Crew and CEO of Burdines, a division of Federated Department Stores. During his 13-year tenure at the helm of Burdines, he expanded it from 17 stores to 45, and increased sales from $475 million, to $1.4 billion.


Peter Solomon
Founder of Peter J. Solomon Company
Peter J. Solomon founded Peter J. Solomon Company in February 1989. PJSC is a boutique investment bank providing strategic merger and acquisition, corporate finance and restructuring advisory services to clients in a wide range of industries. In 1978 Mr. Solomon became Deputy Mayor of Economic Policy and Development in New York City under Mayor Edward I. Koch and in 1980, President Carter appointed Mr. Solomon Counselor to the United States Treasury. Following that Mr. Solomon became Vice Chairman of Lehman Brothers and Co-Chairman of the Investment Banking Department. Mr. Solomon received his B.A. degree cum laude from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.