ACG 101 JAN 31 2024 The State of the Fashion Industry

Mark is a Partner at the firm, and he is Chair of the Consumer Products practice group.

Mark specializes in representing consumer product companies in corporate, commercial, intellectual property, finance, transactional, merger and acquisition, insolvency, e-commerce, and sourcing matters. For over 30 years, Mark has been steeped in the apparel and textile space, building relationships with the leading players, and leveraging his experience to guide apparel, textile, and other consumer product clients during start ups, capital transactions, mergers, and acquisitions. Mark has the requisite unique, industry-specific experience to assist clients with navigating the best paths to success.

Sydnee Breuer is Executive Vice President and Western Region Manager at Rosenthal & Rosenthal (R&R), the largest privately held factor in the country.  She is a 30+ year veteran of the Los Angeles commercial finance and factoring community, beginning her career at CIT as a credit investigator.  Since then, she has held positions as credit officer, field examiner, account executive, underwriter, business development officer, and now regional manager.

Rosenthal opened its Los Angeles office in 2003 and Sydnee joined in 2009 in business development.  She has been instrumental in bringing in new business, developing relationships and growing R&R’s footprint within the Southern California community and now leads the west coast team in providing clients factoring, asset-based lending, and purchase order financing.  She has spent much of her career focusing on financing the apparel industry and is a past president of the Fashion and Retail Council for City of Hope.

Sydnee received her BA in Economics at Rutgers University and her MBA from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. 

Ronald Friedman is an advisory and assurance partner in Marcum’s Los Angeles office and a member of the Firm’s Advisory Services team. He is also co-leader of the Firm’s National Retail & Consumer Products Industry group. Ron has more than 50 years of diverse accounting experience and over 15 years serving as an expert witness. He has testified as an expert witness in numerous litigation cases in federal and state courts regarding lost profits, partner disputes, and white-collar crimes. Mr. Friedman has a unique ability to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of business operations and related controls to protect the assets of a company. He has been retained by entities across industries and of various sizes to investigate frauds related to partnership disputes, employee frauds, damages due to lost profits, breach of contract, and white-collar crimes. Mr. Friedman has also represented clients in Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission matters. He has been retained on numerous occasions for both consulting and expert witness engagements, particularly in ownership disputes, breach of contract, fraud investigations, earnout disputes and other types of forensic analysis. Throughout his career as an independent accountant for privately held companies, he has uncovered fraud ranging from a CFO diverting company funds for personal use, to management fraud, financial fraud perpetrated on the company’s lenders, and others. Mr. Friedman also provides consulting services for closely held and emerging businesses in the manufacturing, distribution and retail industries.

With over 20 years of fashion expertise, Kelly Helfman, President of Informa Markets Fashion, has re-imagined the wholesale industry. Landing MAGIC as the top U.S. trade event for several consecutive years in a row, Kelly has successfully boosted globally sought-after brands, MAGIC, COTERIE, PROJECT, and SOURCING at MAGIC into new era through industry advancements with live events and digital focused products. Kelly has expertly navigated the ever-changing fashion industry, drawing a wide scope of insights that lend to her innovative approach, and progressive leadership style. Bringing authenticity and advocacy for a modern work life balance approach, Kelly continually shapes not only fashion B2B events, but for the industry as a whole.

Kerry Jolna is the CEO of the EMJ Apparel Group. EMJ is the owner of lifestyle brands, Bella Dahl, Cloth & Stone, and Side Stitch Apparel. For over 30 years, Kerry has focused on the contemporary women’s market, specifically dedicating the company to “Best of Class” product, fabric, and manufacturing sourcing in the international marketplace. EMJ’s company culture promotes brand integrity over company profit.

“Our team understands the importance of supporting and taking care of the brand, our customers, and our supply chain. We let the profit take care of itself. A very talented corporate team has made all the difference to grow our company and our mission.”

Jaan Bhatia is a seasoned e-commerce leader who currently serves as the President of Primitive Company. With experience and specialty in ecommerce, Jaan has grown Primitive Company to an ecommerce leader in the street wear space. Jaan also has a background in converting distressed brands to e-commerce only players as a Chief Digital Officer.