Alexander S. Farkas (April 3, 1930 – July 28, 1999) was the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Alexander's Alexander's is a real estate investment trust that owns 7 properties in New York metropolitan area, including 731 Lexington Avenue, the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. It is controlled by Vornado Realty Trust. It was founded by George Farkas and ...

, a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

Family

Farkas was the son of George Farkas, the founder of Alexander's, and Ruth Lewis Farkas, a sociologist and the ambassador to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. He was the uncle of

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

Andrew L. Farkas, who founded

Insignia Financial Group Insignia Financial Group was a company that invested in apartments that were financially distressed, with the goal of increasing value via recapitalization. It was founded and controlled by billionaire Andrew L. Farkas and was headquartered in ...

Early life and education

Farkas attended

Choate Rosemary Hall Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate; ) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private high ...

and The Bronx High School of Science. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1949 and studied business at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Career

Although Farkas originally wanted to be a professor, in 1951, his father forced him to work for the store, first as head of stock in the women's coat department. In 1959, after undergoing a rigorous training program, Farkas was named

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and general merchandising manager. In his first year, Farkas doubled the chain's advertising budget and made arrangements with European houses to get their excess inventories. In 1963, Farkas is credited with pushing the company to buy the land for its flagship store on 59th street in Manhattan from

Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Joseph Patrick Kennedy (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the patriarch of the Irish-American Ke ...

for what seemed like a high price of $125 per square foot. In 1968, his father retired as CEO of Alexander's and Alexander took the position. That same year, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

and each of George's sons owned stock worth $2.5 million. The company suffered losses in the early 1980s and in 1984, at the request of Interstate Properties, which owned 13% of the company at that time, Alexander Farkas resigned as CEO and was succeeded by his brother, Robin Farkas (1933-2018).

Personal life

Farkas was married 5 times and had 3 children from his 3rd marriage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farkas, Alexander S. 1930 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in retailing