Mark Schwartz, CEO

Mark founded Palladin Consumer Retail Partners to acquire, provide financing for, and actively manage diversified corporations, primarily in the retail and consumer products sectors.  Mark has taken on a number of roles in the companies in which he has invested or which he has advised, including CEO, Chairman, and active board member.

While organizing and deploying Palladin’s 2012 equity fund, Mark also served from 2010 to 2013 as Executive Chairman of Arnotts Limited, the largest department store in Ireland.  Mark and the Palladin team were recruited by the company’s lenders to manage the restructuring and growth of the business.  They hired a new senior management team and redefined Arnotts’ vision and strategic focus.  Under their leadership, many new brands were introduced, over 100,000 sq. ft. of real estate was renovated and Arnotts was returned to a leading and profitable position in the Irish retail market.

In 2002 Mark merged the Palladin organization into Gordon Brothers Group, becoming President and then CEO of that organization.  From 2002 to 2009, he transitioned Gordon Brothers from a retail liquidation firm to a diversified professional services organization with equal asset disposition, asset management and appraisal capabilities in the U.S., Europe and Japan.  His initiatives included creating and managing, as CEO, GB Merchant Partners, which raised more than $500 million of institutional capital deployed in more than 30 transactions.  Under Mark’s leadership, Gordon Brothers’ revenues and pre-tax income grew at compound rates of 18.5% and 27.2%, respectively, and the firm doubled in value.  He sold his ownership position in Gordon Brothers in 2009 to refocus Palladin on new investment and restructuring opportunities.

Mark also served as Chairman and Chief Executive of Nine West Group, was President of Rosecliff, a New York-based buyout firm, was a Director of the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch, and was an officer of Manufactures Hanover Trust, Co. and Manufacturers Hanover Limited.  Other public and private companies where Mark has served as the Chairman or a Director include Things Remembered, Restoration Hardware, Clair de Lune, Spencer Gifts, Party America, Laura Secord, Marketmax (currently a division of SAS), Jones Apparel Group, Murray’s Discount Auto Stores, Government Services Property, CFM/Vermont Castings, J. McLaughlin, Harrys of London, AEROSOLES and InMotion Entertainment Group. He currently is a Director of  Nic + Zoe,  KT Health, Splash Car Wash, Decowraps, Leapfrog Brands, Tailwind Concessions, Southeast Mechanical and M@C Discount and is a Trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the URJ, as well as an Advisory Board Member of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School.

Mark earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.