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Saks 3:16

This traumatic leg of the Saks Global journey is ending with a bankruptcy filing in Houston and the almost-guaranteed departure of Richard Baker. But accountability should be spread far and wide as whispers emerge about the next management team.

Richard Baker
So, what happens to Baker now? Well, for one thing, he will likely never work in luxury again (and he doesn’t need to). Photo: Billy Farrell/BFA.com
Lauren Sherman
January 12, 2026

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When I named Line Sheet’s Villain of the Year at the end of 2025, I got more than one dispirited message asking why it wasn’t Richard Baker, then the chairman of Saks Global and the mastermind of its disastrous acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group at the beginning of 2025. That slow-moving trainwreck has defined the past 12 months in the industry, from the oversubscribed bond offering and the Valentine’s Day Massacre to the August debt restructuring and, now, a likely Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Houston on Tuesday morning.