Richard Baker

Richard Baker is the former executive chairman of Saks Global. Baker led the highly anticipated acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group and established Saks Global. He is an owner of National Realty & Development Corporation (NRDC), one of the largest real estate development companies in the United States. Baker previously served as the chairman of the Board of Directors for Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation (ROIC), after he converted the company into the NASDAQ-listed REIT focused on acquiring retail properties on the west coast of the United States. ROIC was acquired by Blackstone Real Estate for $4 billion in 2025.

Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, Baker’s first venture was a high-end catering business, which he founded after attending culinary classes at age 15. “He was more interested in business than in being the captain of the basketball team,” his father told The New York Times. “He was making money for the sake of making money.”

Richard Baker graduated from Cornell’s hotel management course and eventually joined his father in the family business of real estate development. They persuaded the giant discount retailer Wal-Mart to set up shop at various strip malls they owned across the country. After two decades, however, Baker decided to branch out from the strip mall business after spotting an opportunity in the high-end department store business.

Instinctively, he acquired the ailing Lord & Taylor department store from May Department Stores in 2006 and then Hudson’s Bay Company, one of Canada’s oldest retailers. Baker felt that Canada lacked a mid-to-upper-range department store, and brought Lord & Taylor to the country. At the same time, purchasing Hudson’s Bay allowed Baker valuable real estate in the country with the chain of Bay shops.

Baker and his management team weathered the economic recession that ensued, retiring brands like Nautica from their stores’ sales floors and bringing in exciting new brands like Theory and Tory Burch . In 2013, the parent company paid $2.4 billion for upscale American department store Saks Fifth Avenue and in early 2019 Baker announced that he had bought a near-10 percent stake in Hudson's Bay Company from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation, where Baker serves as president, was founded in 2017 and has since invested more than $7.5 million towards mental health initiatives and has reached over 700,000 people through direct support programs that promote positive mental health. A proud supporter of his alma mater, Cornell University, Baker serves or has served on several councils and advisory boards at Cornell University, including: the Baker Program in Real Estate Advisory Board, the School of Hotel Administration Advisory Council, the Center for Real Estate and Finance Advisory Board and the Center for Real Estate and Finance Industry Fellows. Baker received his Bachelor of Science in hotel management from Cornell University.