Michael Appel – Turnaround Management

Michael Appel, a highly regarded retail executive, has been affiliated with Cedar Croft Consulting since 2004. He has had direct supervisory responsibility for every functional area within a retail operation. To include extensive experience in international sourcing and operations.

Appel offers expertise in women’s apparel, accessories, menswear, children’s wear, and all categories of home furnishings across department stores. As well as specialty stores, luxury, off-price, and direct-response channels of distribution. 

Over the years, he has been retained by Goldman Sachs and other Private Equity and Lender Groups, as Interim CEO and CRO. In such roles, he worked for several well-known retailers and specialty consumer product companies. To include Baccarat, Wilkes Bashford, Laura Ashley, MacKenzie Childs, and Caswell Massey. In each assignment, Michael made significant improvements in operating profitability and cash flow in short periods.

Upon earning an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, Appel joined Bloomingdale’s, where he spent 10 years in merchandising. Working in home furnishings and apparel, he soon rose to the role of Divisional Merchandise Manager of Childrenswear.

In 1983, he was recruited to Fortunoff as Vice President of Merchandising. Over four years, he increased comparable-store sales by more than 60% and increased the gross margin by over 3%. In 1987, he was recruited to Hoffritz for Cutlery, an 80-store national specialty chain, where, after turning around company operations, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer.

In 1991, he established Appel Associates. An advisory firm that provides performance improvement and turnaround consulting services to retail and consumer goods companies. He has been retained by the Boards of Directors as Interim CEO, financial advisor, and CRO to turnaround and stabilize a wide variety of retail and consumer goods companies.

In 2001, He served as Financial Advisor to the Creditor’s Committee of Kasper ASL, a leading manufacturer of women’s apparel under the Kasper and Anne Klein brands. Upon conducting a comprehensive strategic and operational review, a turnaround plan was developed and successfully implemented. And in December 2003, the Jones Group completed the acquisition of Kasper for an aggregate transaction value of $270 million. For his work on Kasper, the Turnaround Management Association awarded Mr. Appel its Large Company Turnaround of the Year Award.

At HCI Direct, Appel was retained as CRO to oversee the company’s prepackaged Chapter 11 proceedings. Where he led a successful implementation of its restructuring plan. After the departure of the  CEO, he was named Interim CEO, successfully managing the business, achieving a plan, introducing a new product line, and recruiting a new CEO.

In 2009, as Interim CEO, Appel led the successful stabilization and sale of the iconic San Francisco luxury apparel retailer, Wilkes Bashford, to the Mitchell Family.  He worked on General Growth Partners’ restructuring in 2010 and 2011. He then served as Interim CEO of Baccarat Crystal, significantly increasing sales in its retail, wholesale, and corporate sales divisions.

In addition to his turnaround management and performance improvement activities, Appel has provided strategic advice, due diligence, and expert witness consulting services to retailers, financial institutions, law firms, and consumer product companies.

At Ford Motor Company, he assisted a management task force in formulating store retail strategies. These strategies aimed at leveraging Ford and its nameplate brands outside the dealer network. At Barney’s New York, he was retained by the bondholders and future owners to review management’s strategic plan. In this role, he provided due diligence before the company’s exit from Chapter 11. While at Castle Harlan, where he was retained to provide due diligence on the LBO of Sheriden Australia.

Appel graduated from Brandeis University (Phi Beta Kappa) before Harvard Business School (MBA with Distinction). He has served on numerous corporate and non-profit Boards. To include Mattress Discounters, Charming Shoppes (where he was Chairman of the Compensation Committee ), and The Laboratory Institute of Merchandising Fashion Education Foundation.

He served as Chairman of the Board of Loehmann’s, the Advisory Board of FIT’s Global Fashion Management MBA program, and is a member of The Fashion Group. Serving on the National Board of the Turnaround Management Association, he is Chairman of the TMA Awards Committee and is a past member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.