Why Akris CEO Melissa Beste Believes Discomfort is the New Creative Edge

Written by Jessie Wang

When Neiman Marcus came to UW-Madison, she decided to give it a shot despite having no educational background in retail. After traveling to Texas for the second round of interviews, she quickly noticed the competitiveness of her interview groups. Beste was surrounded by years of retail academia coupled by fashion internships. For the newcomer, the hiring executives and interviewees were speaking a foreign language. During the math portion, she was oblivious of retail acronyms. "I didn't know that STD meant season-to-date. I thought, 'why are they asking about sexually transmitted diseases?" Beste chuckled. 

Settled in the Windy City for nearly eight years, Beste once again received a phone call swiveling her career. An industry friend called about Saks Fifth Avenue's new Senior Vice President of Buying position. Beste interviewed, and was offered the job. At first she wanted to decline, but it was Beste's sister who persuaded her to act on her own advice. "If you're comfortable, you're not moving forward. Why would you not just move to New York? Chicago will always be there."

After two years at Saks, Beste took another leap of passion. Wanting to move closer to product and branding, she applied for a position with Alexander McQueen. While it was relationship compromising for brands to take individuals from merchant organizations, Beste convinced both McQueen's Global CEO and Saks to take a risk. From 2006 to 2009, Beste served as Alexander McQueen's President of The Americas.  

Private equity allowed Beste to fine tune her career preferences. After three years at InterLuxe, the Kreimlers wanted her to come back to Akris. While Beste didn't believe in going backwards, the Swiss didn't either. Akris was looking for someone outside the family to join a C-suite role. In 2018, Beste returned as Global CEO and has held her position for almost 8 years. 

What people saw in Beste was what she didn't initially see herself–personableness. Her networks were cultivated since her first year at Neiman Marcus. "Your relationships are your report card in life, not just professionally but personally. [...] The way you treat people matters," Beste says. Her lessons in believing, staying uncomfortable and continuing to change teaches students that connections and networks can be forged by oneself. "If someone had told my younger self that I'd be the CEO of a global fashion brand and living between New York and Switzerland, I would not have believed it myself."

Melissa Beste, Akris Global CEO and UW-Madison alum, spoke with Vault members over Zoom about her zig-zag fashion career that started with an abrupt call from Neiman Marcus. From humble roots to managing fashion's most in-vogue brands, Beste gave insight to the lessons she's learned along the way.

From Cedarburg, Wisconsin, a small town outside of Milwaukee with 12,000 residents, Beste's first encounter with retail started far from the luxury-craft. As a teenager, her parents would give her a couple hundred dollars for back-to-school shopping at TJ Maxx. So when the season rolled around, Beste had a few bills and a dream. However, it wasn't until the end of college when a surprising opportunity presented itself. 

After being asked to conjure up a data analysis, Beste tried to leave the interview. "[I told myself] I'm just going to go to the airport and forget this ever happened, stick to the plan, go to law school." To her dismay, Beste was ushered back to the conference room and forced to pivot the question to her observations.

Beste was confident she didn't get the job. Two months later, she received a call welcoming her onto the Neiman Marcus executive trainee program as an Assistant Buyer. A month later she moved from Wisconsin to Texas, thus beginning her fashion career. Two years later, Beste relocated to Chicago working for Calvin Klein, and then as Marshall Field's Senior Buyer for European Couture. 

When Akris' U.S. leadership opened up, Beste joined the Swiss brand as CEO of North America and the U.K. Beste's relationship with Akris was fostered as a Saks Buyer, and kept up the owners, Albert and Peter Kreimler, throughout her career. 

Five years later, Beste revisited her sister's words of wisdom. In 2012, Beste was asked to be CEO of InterLuxe Holdings, a portfolio company that invested in fashion brands. While Beste loved Akris, the novelty of private equity and the startup industry propelled her to stay uncomfortable. "You also learn that a lot of [small brands] make the same mistakes because a lot of our fashion and design schools don't actually teach [students] the business of fashion," Beste reveals. Under Beste, InterLuxe made investments in Jason Wu, ALC and Mackage.