Heath Golden and the art of the next act

Heath Golden went to Dubai to talk about one brand. Five days later, he left with a handshake covering five. The original conversation concerned BCBG. The eventual arrangement with Apparel Group also included Martha Stewart, Sur La Table, Ben Sherman and Bruno Magli. Somewhere between arrival and departure, a meeting about clothes had acquired a kitchen, a dining table and several pairs of shoes.

Golden recounted that trip when the first standalone Martha Stewart retail store opened in Dubai in May 2025. It makes a useful introduction to the chief executive of Marquee Brands. His business depends on recognizing what a partner can do, then finding more places to put that ability to work. A familiar name above a shop door is the visible result. The less visible part is deciding whose hands should turn the key.

His own career has involved a similar exercise in matching people to possibilities. He began as a lawyer, became a public-company CEO at 34, ran an intimates business in the Americas, and moved through accessories, digital commerce, strategy and finance. The thread connecting those jobs is unusually practical: how to give a business a workable next act without discarding the reason customers knew it in the first place.

A CEO in need of a teacher

In 2009, Golden was leading a turnaround at Hampshire Group when a mutual friend introduced him to Jeffrey Spiegel, Randa’s owner and CEO. Years later, Golden described himself at the time as young and inexperienced, looking for an industry mentor. That is a revealing way for an executive to remember his first spell in charge. The title had arrived before the feeling of having all the answers.

The formal record supplies the dates. Golden joined Hampshire in August 2005 in business development, added general counsel responsibilities in 2006, became chief operating officer in April 2009, and took the president and CEO roles that July. Before Hampshire, he had practiced law at Mintz Levin and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. His undergraduate degree came from the University of Pittsburgh; his law degree came from Temple, where he edited the Law Review.

Hampshire’s history also contains an uncomfortable episode. A 2010 Delaware Chancery opinion examining the company’s handling of expenses recorded that Golden had received more than $1,700 for meals and lodging during a personal Puerto Rico vacation. The opinion said he admitted seeking those reimbursements improperly. It is part of the record of this early period, alongside his rise through management. A career in corporate stewardship includes obligations smaller than an acquisition, and just as concrete.

He resigned as Hampshire’s CEO in January 2013. The company’s chairman credited him with transforming the business during a difficult period; Golden stayed on as a consultant to help with the transition. His next operating chapter, at Bendon, brought a different kind of name recognition: he helped launch Heidi Klum Intimates and relaunch Frederick’s of Hollywood as an online business.

“The practical MBA I earned”

Heath Golden, on learning alongside Jeffrey Spiegel

Spiegel’s mentorship continued. In November 2015, Golden joined Randa, initially leading neckwear and jewelry. When he left six and a half years later, he thanked colleagues individually for lessons in leadership and finance. Judy Person and Michael Stitt had taught him to manage large teams with empathy; Jay Patel had expanded his financial understanding. He described his time beside Spiegel as a practical MBA. The gratitude was specific enough to tell us something about how he thinks experience is acquired.

A laboratory one block away

In August 2017, Randa announced a digital laboratory with Golden at its head. Its office was one block from the company’s New York headquarters. That short distance neatly captured the assignment: give a new team room to experiment, while keeping it close to the resources of an established accessories company.

Randa Digital Labs was responsible for direct-to-consumer businesses, online marketplace programs and digital investments. Its remit included rapid prototyping, new customer experiences and new ways to bring products to market. The old business had supply chains, retail relationships and consumer information. The new unit could test how those assets behaved when the customer arrived through a screen.

The arrangement helps explain why Golden’s later acquisition work is more than a list of transactions. Running a digital business makes distribution a daily question. Which channel suits the product? What does the customer see? Who owns the relationship after the sale? A brand can have an impressive past and still need very ordinary decisions about photographs, inventory and checkout.

Golden subsequently led strategy at Randa, working on the Haggar and Tribal acquisitions and an ownership stake in British menswear retailer Moss Bros. He added the CFO role in 2020. By the time he joined Marquee in April 2022, he had experience both buying businesses and dealing with the operating details that make a purchase worthwhile. He became Marquee’s president before taking over as CEO in January 2024.

The old colleague becomes the new partner

In June 2024, the relationship with Randa came around again. Marquee and Randa announced the acquisition of totes Isotoner. Marquee would own the totes and Isotoner brands globally; Randa would become the core operating partner. Golden’s former employer was now helping deliver his current company’s strategy.

It is an arrangement worth spelling out. Owning a brand and running its product business can be separate jobs. One company concentrates on the name, positioning and expansion. Another handles the work of getting the goods to consumers. The division creates an obvious management challenge: shoppers encounter a single brand, however many companies stand behind it. They have little reason to applaud a tidy organizational chart if the umbrella disappoints.

For Golden, the deal also joined two stretches of his working life. He publicly welcomed the chance to combine what he had learned at Randa with his work at Marquee. The mentor’s company had become an operating partner. There are less useful souvenirs from a previous job than a trusted team capable of managing gloves and umbrellas.

Martha, meetings and a shop in Dubai

The Dubai story shows the same approach crossing borders. Golden arrived to discuss BCBG with Apparel Group’s Kamal Kotak, then saw the opportunity for a wider partnership. The Martha Stewart store opened at City Centre Mirdif in May 2025. A personality and a body of work familiar through media and products now had a dedicated retail address.

That requires more than printing a famous name on a shopping bag. A store lets customers judge an assortment together. Cookware, tableware and household objects have to make sense as parts of the same world. Golden’s contribution is to arrange the business relationships through which that world becomes available to people who shop in different places.

At a Martha Stewart brand summit in New York later that year, he welcomed a gathering of more than 100 employees, partners and collaborators. The day included presentations, networking and a fireside conversation with Stewart. There were also sandwiches and cookies. Brand strategy had, sensibly, allowed for lunch.

The group photograph places Golden beside Stewart and colleagues responsible for design, marketing, commercial growth and culinary work. It offers a corrective to the solitary CEO portrait: this is a business with several kinds of expertise in the room. Golden’s earlier thank-you to his Randa colleagues makes that ensemble feel like a continuation of his own education.

Flowers on the high street, socks at home plate

Marquee acquired Laura Ashley from Gordon Brothers in January 2025, keeping its existing UK team in place. By September, a standalone Laura Ashley store had opened at Lakeside in Thurrock through a partnership with Next. For Golden, the opportunity included both the brand itself and its established relationships across Europe and Asia.

The useful distinction is between buying a legacy and giving it places to live. Laura Ashley’s patterns can travel across clothing and home products, but the commercial decisions still need to suit each setting. The continuity of the team and the partnership with Next put recognizable human and operating connections behind the return.

Stance, acquired in November 2025, supplied a different sort of familiarity. Its socks had connections to sports leagues, entertainment properties and artists. In discussing the purchase, Golden pointed to those cultural associations. The question was how far the identity could travel beyond the product category that had made it recognizable.

United Legwear & Apparel became the global licensee outside China. Golden outlined a division in which Marquee would guide brand strategy and storytelling, while its partner led product execution and retail operations. He also discussed potential expansion into activewear and footwear. Those were ambitions, rather than a completed assortment. A recognizable sock does not automatically confer permission to sell everything above the ankle.

The next agreement needs the right hands

In May 2026, Marquee announced an agreement for a majority interest in Roberto Cavalli with DAMAC Group. The proposed structure again assigned distinct responsibilities: The Level Group would handle collections and operating channels, while DAMAC retained the branded residences and hospitality business. Golden discussed expanding distribution and exploring categories including home and childrenswear, with Fausto Puglisi continuing in creative leadership.

Another agreement followed in August, this time involving Canada’s Roots. Marquee partnered with JM&A, led by Joseph Mimran and Frank Rocchetti, on a proposed transaction that would retain Canadian operating leadership. The announcement targeted a fourth-quarter 2026 closing, subject to approvals. Golden emphasized both international opportunities and preserving the brand’s Canadian character.

That combination is the recurring problem in his work: change the business arrangements without making the familiar name feel like a stranger. His path from legal documents to neckties, digital experiments and global partnerships has given him several ways to approach it. The personal lesson began earlier, with a young CEO willing to seek a teacher. The business lesson keeps returning in new forms: knowing the name is only the beginning. Someone still has to do the work.