Hartmarx CEO Patel

Hartmarx Corporation, the Chicago based apparel maker, acquired a Zarathushti chief executive officer in April 2002 when Homi Patel succeeded Elbert O. Hand. Patel who had joined Hartmarx in 1979 as vice president and general manager of the career apparel focused Fashionaire Division of Hart Schaffner and Marx, became Hartmarx president in 1992 and its chief operating officer in 1993. He was elected to the company’s board of directors the following year.

Patel: marketing menswear

Patel followed his BSc in statistics from the University of Bombay with an MBA from Columbia University. Prior to joining Hartmarx where he led several operating units like Austin Reed of Regent Street and M. Wile and Company becoming the head of the Men’s Apparel Group in 1990, Patel had been marketing director for Corbin Limited in New York.

Married to Anne, the Patels have two sons — Cyrus working for Price Waterhouse in Washington DC and Neville doing his MBA at Wharton — and a daughter Natasha in school, notes the FEZANA Journal.