
Jessica Helfand, Ellen McGirt|Audio
December 3, 2019
S7E8: James Rhee
James Rhee is executive chair and CEO Ashley Stewart as well as the founder and president of FirePine Group.
Rhee took over Ashley Stewart, a 22-year-old clothing chain that had declared bankruptcy once and was spiraling toward liquidation, in 2013. He saw a company with limited resources, tremendous loyalty, and great potential — and need to persuade both doubters and supporters:
The hardest thing to do was with my own employee base and customer base saying, “No, no, I’m not here to save you. I’m here because I back people and causes with merit that just could maybe use one little helping hand.”
And so capitalism, it is effective, but it depends on who’s wielding the weapon.
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Special thanks to Starfish Media Group for use of excerpts from their documentary-in-progress about Ashley Stewart.
And a big thanks to our sponsor, Mailchimp.
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