Mrs. Karen W. Katz has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of Neiman Marcus Inc. and its subsidiary Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., since October 5, 2010. Mrs. Katz served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Neiman Marcus Stores of Neiman Marcus Inc., since December 2002 until October 6, 2010. Mrs. Katz served as Executive Vice President of Marketing, Business Development and Strategy of The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. (alternate name Neiman-Marcus Group Inc) from October 2007 to October 6, 2010. She served as Executive Vice President of Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., until October 2010. Mrs. Katz served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Neiman Marcus Stores, a subsidiary of Neiman Marcus Group Inc. from December 2002 to October 2007. She served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Neiman Marcus Direct, a division of Neiman Marcus Group from December 2002 to October 2007 and previously served in this position from May 2000 to December 2002. She served as Executive Vice President of Neiman Marcus Stores from February 1998 to May 2000 and served as Senior Vice President from September 1996 to February 1998. She served as Vice President and General Manager of the Dallas NorthPark Neiman Marcus store. She has been a Director at Neiman Marcus Inc. since October 05, 2010. Mrs. Katz served as an Independent Director of Pier 1 Imports Inc. since June 2001. Mrs. Katz served as a Director of Neiman Marcus Stores from September 1996 to February 1998.

David Schottenstein founded his first company at age 12, after he noticed how popular cigars were among the businessmen who visited his father, Thomas Schottenstein, a principal of Arshot Investment Corp. So he started his own cigar business on the sly and ran it for two years before his father found out and shut it down. He then moved on to trading Internet and pharmaceutical stocks, also without his father’s permission; that career was also cut short when his father found out. But while attending a Jewish boarding school in Venice, Schottenstein discovered his love of fashion and created a business of which even his father would approve. A big fan of the British tailoring tradition, Schottenstein started Astor & Black, a company that sold custom bespoke clothing, at the tender age of 21. He used money he had saved from his previous business ventures to fund his vision, which was to bring custom tailoring to the general public at affordable prices. The suits, which are made in China, Hong Kong, Italy, and Brooklyn, start at $499; prices increase depending on the fabric, with the bulk of transactions in the $895 range. Schottenstein’s fixed costs are low because Astor & Black does not stock inventory and sales representatives need only minimal office space. Most offline sales occur in a client’s home or office. Astor and Black grew to over 25mm in sales and was acquired by Castanea Partners in 2011. Success in the menswear industry with custom clothier Astor & Black has provided Mr. Schottenstein with a keen sense for what men require in their search for higher quality dress presentation. Mr. Schottenstein’s latest contribution in this search was borne from personal experience. “The problem [with men’s shirts] was that there was no easy collar stay option—a set of collar stays to fit every shirt I put on,” says the inventor. “I would either have to use a different size for every shirt or cut a collar stay to fit the collar I was wearing. I’ve even cut a good pair of collar stays in half before, because it was so frustrating to not be able to find the right size in a hurry.” For the founder of a menswear success story, the solution was Swiss Stays. Swiss Stays is now a "main stay" at many of the top retailers across the United States. David continued he entrepreneurial path with another hit, that grew out of a real life need.When David Schottenstein served as the CEO of Astor & Black Custom Clothiers, he frequently needed to hire lawyers to handle business matters. He used several legal firms but says he always ran into the same problem: an unexpected, exorbitant bill arrived at the end of the month. Viewabill is now a huge player in the legal software space. They are currently working with a combination of large brands and large firms that includes: ReedSmith, American Eagle, MGM resorts and many more.

Chris has been in the technology and business services industry for 18 years with a focus on sales, marketing, business start up. His extensive experience includes P&L responsibility, sales forecasting, compensation plans, business divestiture, strategic alliances and investments, international sales and marketing execution. He is currently the Senior Director of B2B Sales for Digital River, Inc (NASDAQ: DRIV) driving Digital River's B2B sales strategy and collaborating with product management to accelerate its B2B road map.

John Lowe joined Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams four years ago as Chief Executive and part-owner after receiving a late-night call from his long-time friends, Jeni Britton Bauer and Charly Bauer. The couple knew they had created something amazing, and they knew their friend was just the person to help it skyrocket. Since John joined Jeni’s, the Company has grown from 4 shops to 12, with four others in the works, and has "gone national" with its pints on the freezer shelves of more than 800 of America's finest retailers, causing Time Magazine to feature the Company under the headline, “Can The Best Ice Cream In America Be Its Biggest?” The Company recently expanded on its pint success by adding products to its wholesale distribution, including hand-piped macaroon sandwiches and dessert sauces, for which it was recently named a Finalist for Best Product Line by the Specialty Food Retailer Association. The Founders and John have managed to maintain the Company's family-and-a-friend ownership structure while making what Seth Godin calls, "The Quantum Leap": transforming from a mom-and-pop to a multi-site, national force. John joined Jeni’s from General Electric Company, where he held numerous executive roles, from serving as General Counsel of GE Aviation’s $11B Global Operations, to being an Officer of GE Honda Aero Engines, LLC, a joint venture created to power HondaJet. Early in his GE career, John was selected to participate in GE’s famed 3-week Manager Development Course for "bringing humor and calm to the most stressful situations, and ferocious intensity to daily activities." In MDC, his humor, business acumen and leadership attributes were cited as reasons he needed to leave the practice of law. Soon thereafter, at the height of the financial crisis of 2008, John was tapped to lead multiple business-critical asset and stock sales. Lucky for him, each deal closed minutes prior to the Company's quarterly reporting cut-off, and his future outside the law was cemented. John began his legal career with Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter, where he served as outside counsel for numerous start-up businesses, including a certain ice cream company. While at Kegler Brown, John was co-chair of United Way of Central Ohio’s Young Leadership Group, was honored by Summer Leadership Intern Program for his “support of SLIP and commitment to Columbus Area Youth,” was named to Business First’s “Forty Under 40” list and graduated from Leadership Columbus. In addition to being listed in numerous “Rising Star” publications, when Business First recognized the top Columbus-area lawyers by practice area, as voted by their peers, John was the youngest attorney listed. In addition to his role with Jeni’s, John is Founder/CEO of Eat Well Distribution, a company that leverages the infrastructure of Jeni’s to help other artisan food companies get their products on the shelves of great retailers. John serves as an outside director of White Castle Company, on the advisory board of Portfolio Creative, acts as a business mentor for the founders of VIP Waste Management and Watershed Distillery. He serves on the non-profit boards of the Columbus Sports Commission and the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Most importantly, John is part-owner of a circus, run by Catherine L. Strauss, formerly Associate Corporate Counsel of a publicly-traded REIT. They employ three clowns, Jack, 8, Alex, 5, and Luke, 2.

Jay rose to be the youngest Vice President at International Management Group (IMG). He later joined Wasserman Media Group as a Senior Vice President and Director of the golf division. Recently, he launched Forefront Sport Group as an Sports Management agency and digital marketing consultancy.

Hunter is president and CEO of Hunt Consolidated Energy, the holding company for Hunt Oil, Hunt Power, and the other energy activities of the Ray L. Hunt family of Dallas, Texas. Hunt Oil Company was founded in 1934 by H.L. Hunt and is one of the largest privately-owned energy companies in the world, engaging in exploration and production as well as LNG. Hunt is also engaged in refining, development of energy technologies and developing renewable energy projects.

Mike Redd is an athlete, advisor, investor, and television personality. As an athlete, Mike was an NBA All Star, Olympic Gold Medalist, 3x Ohio State MVP, and 4th on Milwaukee Bucks all-time points list, 5th in Milwaukee Bucks all-time scoring average. He is also an investor and advisor, bringing his skills and experience to young and growing companies.

While working for international consulting firm Oliver Wyman, Kevin, 27, spent a year based out of their Dubai office working around the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During this time in the Middle East and another year in the United States, he worked on financial and operational modeling, operational and asset divestitures, and strategic analyses in the telecommunications, aviation, IT and utility industries. Kevin spent the last two years before Mizzen+Main with the venture capital group of the Hunt Consolidated family of companies in Dallas, Texas focusing on emerging energy technologies and consumer focused initiatives helping develop early stage ideas and start up portfolio companies. Building a socially responsible company from the ground up is what Kevin was made to do. Having lived in four countries and traveled to twenty-six, his global exposure and experience will be critical to growth of the next great American brand around the world. Kevin graduated summa cum laude from Southern Methodist University with a B.S. in Engineering.

Steven has been branding and designing for nearly 8 years for a broad spectrum of clients since graduating from the University of Akron. In Akron, he helped establish and maintain the look of clients such as John Deere, Kimberly Clarke and Sherwin Williams. From there he relocated to Las Vegas for 5 years and to help develop and guide the brands of such mega-resorts as Bellagio Las Vegas, MGM Grand, Monte Carlo and Mandalay Bay. Soon after meeting and marrying his best friend Betsy, they decided to relocate to Dallas where he was hired to develop creative and conceptual brand work for Dannon and Frito-Lay. It was in Dallas he met Kevin, and soon began helping him to build his dream by developing the name, look and feel of Mizzen+Main. Steven is obsessed over details and relentless in obtaining the correct solutions. He works hard and has extremely high standards. He believes in the power of simple creative and is proactive in a reactive environment. It is through branding he shifts minds, changes landscapes and influences the masses.