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Housewares Industry Adds New Honorees for 11th Annual Charity Gala March 17
ROSEMONT, ILL (February 14, 2008)—The Housewares Charity Foundation (HCF) will honor two retail champions for their commitment to philanthropy with its 2008 Awards at the 11th Annual Housewares Charity Foundation Gala on Monday, March 17, 2008. Renee Behnke, president emeritus, Sur La Table, will be honored as Humanitarian of the Year and Burton Tansky, chairman and chief executive officer of The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., will receive the inaugural Design and Fashion Leadership Award.
The event will benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the HCF’s legacy charity, and America’s Second Harvest and will be held at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers in conjunction with the 2008 International Home + Housewares Show. As previously announced, Thierry de La Tour d'Artaise, chairman and CEO, Groupe SEB, will receive the Lifetime Humanitarian Award at the gala.
Behnke: A Multi-Cultural Culinary Experience
It was Renée Behnke’s abiding interest in the culinary arts that originally led to her family’s purchase of Sur La Table in 1995. At that time, the business was a sole retail store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. Kindred culinary spirits, the Behnkes soon set out to share this wonderful Seattle institution with other cities. Opening a second store in Berkeley that same year, Sur La Table has since expanded and currently operates more than 55 locations nationwide.
Behnke, a Portland, Ore. native, was a buyer for Nordstrom and The Bon Marché for 10 years and spent time as a caterer and cooking instructor. A passionate food-lover and cook, Behnke honed her culinary skills over a lifetime in the kitchen. Her vision for Sur La Table was to offer customers a multi-cultural culinary experience by providing them with authentic tools and serving pieces to prepare cuisines from around the world. She also wanted to offer great service from knowledgeable employees who were educated about preparation, presentation and all the tools Sur La Table carried.
As president, she led the growing company for 10 years and developed the Sur La Table Culinary Program to educate and energize both employees and customers. “I realized so many people never had a chance to learn cooking—simple as well as more sophisticated cooking,” she says.
Starting with the first program at Berkeley in 1996, Sur La Table has the largest nationwide, avocational culinary program in the United States, with energetic and up-to-date curricula teaching 50,000 cooking enthusiasts a year how and what to cook. Classes range from beginner to expert and spotlight dozens of renowned local and visiting chefs and cookbook authors each season.
Today, Sur La Table is a multimillion-dollar business with stores nationwide, a mail-order catalog, culinary arts program, gift registry and retail Web site. Still based in Seattle, it’s owned by a group of private investors, including Freeman Spogli and the Behnke family.
Carl Behnke is chairman of the Board of Directors and Renée Behnke is president emeritus.
But the family believes in giving back and the Behnkes have formed a charitable foundation that donates to various causes in the Seattle community. Renee Behnke is also serving in 2008 as chair of the International Wine Auction, which she and her husband founded 15 years ago to raise money for the arts in Seattle. This year, they hope to raise $1 million through the auction.
Tansky: Merchandising Excellence & Customer Service
Burt Tansky is chairman and CEO of The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., the premier retailer of luxury and designer merchandise in the United States. The company is known worldwide for its 99-year commitment to merchandising excellence and customer service.
Tansky oversees the strategic direction, operations and expansion of The Neiman Marcus Group, which includes the Specialty Retail Stores segment and the Direct Marketing segment. The Specialty Retail Stores segment consists primarily of 39 Neiman Marcus and two Bergdorf Goodman stores. The Direct Marketing segment conducts both print catalog and online operations under the Neiman Marcus, Horchow and Bergdorf Goodman brand names.
Tansky joined the company in 1990 as chairman and CEO of Bergdorf Goodman. In 1994, he became the chairman and CEO of Neiman Marcus. In 1999, he was named president and chief operating officer of The Neiman Marcus Group, and in 2000, he was elevated to his present position. Prior to his affiliation with The Neiman Marcus Group, he was president of Saks Fifth Avenue, joining that company in 1977 from I.Magnin where he had been senior vice president and general merchandise manager. His extensive retail background also includes management positions at Kaufmann’s and Filene’s. Tansky was educated at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 2002, Tansky was appointed a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, the highest honor awarded by the French government. In January 13, 2005, he was honored by the National Retail Federation with its Gold Medal Award and named Retailer of the Year, the highest individual honor in retailing.
Tansky has maintained a strong commitment over the years to charity and community service in both New York City and Dallas, Texas. He has received special recognition and honors from a number of important and well-known institutions and charities such as the American Jewish Committee, the Phoenix House, the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine. He serves on the board of the Children’s Hearing Institute in New York City, The Children’s Hospital in Dallas, the Phoenix House and the Phoenix Houses of Texas, and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. He is also a Trustee of the University of Pittsburgh.
Tansky and his wife, Rita, reside in Dallas and have two children, Michael and Hyla, and three grandchildren, Emily and Jacob Weiss and Sascha Tansky.
11 Years of Industry Collaboration
“HCF is the industry at its best—a collaborative effort among manufacturers, retailers and allied industry partners giving back,” said Phil Brandl, president of the International Housewares Association and HCF event co-chairman. “In a relatively short period of time, the accomplishments are exceedingly impressive—we’ve raised more than $13 million!”
Since the first Gala in 1998, HCF has contributed more than $6 million to breast cancer research alone. The cure and prevention of breast cancer has always been a strong focus of HCF. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), HCF’s legacy charity, has received more than $5 million over the years. It was founded in 1993 by Evelyn H. Lauder and is dedicated to funding innovative clinical and genetic research. In 2006, HCF made a $1 million contribution to establish a new Integrated Breast Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Chicago Medical Center, in partnership with Carole and Gordon Segal, founders of Crate and Barrel, who were honored last year as Lifetime Humanitarians.
America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through its network of more than 200 member food banks, America's Second Harvest annually provides assistance to more than 25 million people in need, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each year, America's Second Harvest secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of food and grocery products to support feeding programs at approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after school programs, and Kids Cafes. To learn more, please visit www.secondharvest.org.
The honorees are selected for their humanitarian efforts and exceptional leadership. Over the years, HCF has honored retailers including Bloomingdales, Boscov’s, Carson Pirie Scott, Crate and Barrel, Federated Merchandising Group, Fortunoff, Macy’s East, JC Penney, QVC, Sears Roebuck, Shopko Stores and Target Stores for their commitment to giving. From the manufacturing community, the Foundation has honored individuals from All-Clad Metalcrafters, Bradshaw International, Conair, Meyer Corporation, Newell, Norelco, Salton and Wallace Silversmiths. Good Housekeeping magazine is a permanent sponsor of the event.
To reserve seats for the 2008 HCF gala, contact Paul Murphy at 508-272-0717, visit the website at www.housewarescharity.org or make reservations onsite at the Show Store on Level 2.5 of the South Building.
