Please join us for Rich Goldman's presentation and book signing.  Free books to the first 50 students who show up on time for the lecture.  We will also be providing pizza to participants.  The title of his presentation and book is: Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World.   

Luck by Design, is a book that is half a memoir and half a how-to on making better decisions, trusting your intuition, living with integrity, and designing your own luck, so you can lead the life you were meant to live.  Filled to the brim with inspiring stories and solid pieces of life wisdom, Luck by Design is a must-read for Millenials and Baby Boomers alike. 

Please RSVP to Erika Fields at fields@brandeis.edu by Monday, April 20 if you plan to attend.

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Richard Goldman is the retired Executive Vice-President of Men’s Wearhouse, where he worked from 1973-2002. 

Goldman was born in 1950 to a middle class family in the coal-mining town of Hazleton, PA.  He graduated from MMI Prep, a small private high school in nearby Freeland, PA in 1968.  He enrolled at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, NJ in 1968, and graduated from with a BA in English in 1972.  A year after graduation, he moved to Houston, TX, where he met George Zimmer…only three weeks after Zimmer had opened the first Men’s Wearhouse (MW) store.

Zimmer hired Goldman to work on the floor of that first store, and from that modest beginning arose Goldman's 29-year career.  From one store, whose annual sales were less than $1 Million,  Zimmer and Goldman oversaw the creation of the largest chain of men's clothing stores in both the US and Canada (500+ stores in the US, 120+ in Canada). 

In 2002, when Goldman retired, annual sales at MW were in excess of $1.2 Billion.  During his tenure at MW, the company was recognized as one of Forbes’ "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 1999 and 2000 (and several subsequent years after his retirement).  In 2000, MW was also named "Retailer of the Decade" by MR Magazine (the leading national trade magazine for menswear retailing).  

Goldman is widely recognized as the marketing mastermind of MW, from his insistence on using TV as the main form of advertising as far back as 1975, to his careful nurturing and managing of the MW brand and image, as the company expanded from one part of the country to another.  MW now has stores in almost all of the top 125 markets in the US.

For many years, Goldman was also the General Merchandise Manager of MW, responsible for overseeing the purchasing of all product categories.  His breakthrough and extensive work on merchandising schemes for monitoring product sales as well as margins are still in use at MW.

While at MW, Goldman was also an active member of the men’s retailing industry, helping to create the Men's Apparel Alliance in 2000, whose aim it was to change men's awareness of how to dress for work.  He has gained extensive public speaking experience at MW conferences, investor road shows, and on Wall Street.  He’s been a featured guest speaker at many universities, including Cal-Berkeley, UCLA, Mills College, Brandeis University, and Cal State Hayward. 

Additional affiliations include serving as a Board Member and co-founder of SF Connect (sfconnect.org), from 2005-present; a Board Member, investor and consultant to Benefit Magazine, 2005-2007; Brandies University, Member of the Board of Overseers of the Graduate School of International Business and Finance, 2001-present; Board Member of the Jewish Community High School of San Francisco 2005-2006; and Campaign Marketing Consultant for Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, from 2002-2003 and 2006-present.

Richard Goldman is the author of the new book, Luck By Design: Certain Success In An Uncertain World, which was inspired by his experiences with Men’s Wearhouse.

Goldman resides with his wife and daughter in Northern California.