Dworkin Quits as President of Neiman-Marcus
In an unexpected move, David L. Dworkin resigned Friday as president of Neiman-Marcus, a specialty store chain that was recently spun off from Carter Hawley Hale Stores as part of the Los Angeles-based retailer’s restructuring.
Dworkin, 43, who had served as president of the prestigious Dallas-based division since joining it in 1984, said in a telephone interview, “I don’t have any plans. . . . I’m really going to take some time off.”
A 20-year veteran of retailing, Dworkin said he eventually intends “to pursue opportunities” in the industry after looking “at the broad spectrum” of the business. “There are a lot of new forms of retailing; there are many store companies faced with a lot of new competition or that are thinking of ways to restructure,” he said. “There are many narrowly defined businesses that fill niches, and that’s really what I’d like to study.
“I’m a builder,” he added. “I’m looking for some new challenges.”
Neiman-Marcus and two other units--Bergdorf Goodman and Contempo Casuals--were spun off last summer into a new company called Neiman-Marcus Group. Dworkin’s is the first departure of a top-ranking divisional executive from those companies since that time. Asked whether there had been a falling out with General Cinema, the Pepsi bottler and movie theater operator that controls Neiman-Marcus Group, Dworkin said, “Not at all. I have a great deal of respect for them . . . and I think they have a great deal of respect for me.”
Dworkin began his career in 1967 as a trainee at Abraham & Straus, a Federated Department Stores unit. In 1969, he moved to St. Louis, where he worked eight years for Famous-Barr, a May Department Stores division. He then held a variety of senior posts at Saks Fifth Avenue for six years before moving briefly to Marshall Field, where he was recruited by Carter Hawley Chairman Philip M. Hawley for Neiman-Marcus.
He said he looks forward to having some time off at Christmas “for the first time in my life.”
In the announcement of Dworkin’s resignation, Robert J. Tarr Jr., president and chief operating officer of Neiman-Marcus Group and a General Cinema executive, said Richard C. Marcus, 49, chairman and chief executive of the Neiman-Marcus chain, will assume the added duties of chief operating officer. That action was taken as part of a management reorganization prompted by Dworkin’s departure, said Janine Dusossoit, a Neiman-Marcus Group spokeswoman.
A new president, to be responsible for all buying, merchandising and product development activities for the division, will be named in the near future, Tarr added. Lawrence Elkin, executive vice president-administration, was given the post of executive vice president-sales and will take responsibility for store operations.
Signaling a change in past practice, Tarr also stated: “Fashion merchandising strategies for both the Neiman-Marcus stores and Bergdorf Goodman will be more closely coordinated now and in the future.”
Traditionally, Dusossoit noted, Bergdorf Goodman’s single location on Fifth Avenue in New York has bought merchandise independently of Neiman-Marcus. “They (Bergdorf) are often the first to promote new designers,” she said. “Once a designer has been brought in and given the publicity that that entails, the next natural step for a designer, of course, is to expand. Naturally, Neiman-Marcus would be a logical outlet.”
She indicated that the stores will continue to operate independently but that there are “opportunities for interface” in forming buying relationships with designers and resources.
