Background
He grew up in a Jewish family in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Betty Lou (née Grossman) and Robert C. Baker, the founder of NRDC Equity Partners, a private owners of shopping centers in the United States.
He grew up in a Jewish family in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Betty Lou (née Grossman) and Robert C. Baker, the founder of NRDC Equity Partners, a private owners of shopping centers in the United States.
He graduated from the Brunswick School and then went on to receive his undergraduate degree from Cornell University where he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
He is the Governor and Executive Chairman of the Hudson"s Bay Company. The corporation operates Galeria Kaufhof in Germany, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH in the United States, and Hudson"s Bay and Home Outfitters, in Canada. He began his career working for his father, a mall developer and principal of National Realty & Development Corporation, after graduating from Cornell"s hotel management school.
In 2006, he purchased Lord & Taylor, America’s longest continually operating luxury department store from Federated Department Stores, borrowing to finance nearly all of the deal.
He has served as Chairman of Lord & Taylor since 2006. In 2008, he bought the Hudson’s Bay Company, North America’s oldest commercial coorperation, for which he acts as the Governor and Executive Chairman.
In 2012, Hudson’s Bay Company went public and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. He is the non-executive chairman of the Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation, a real estate investment trust listed on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation Stock Exchange that focuses on retail properties located on the east and west coasts of the United States.
He sits on the Advisory Board of the Cornell University School of Hotel Management.
He is the namesake benefactor and sits on the Advisory Board of the Baker Program in Real Estate - an two-year graduate program in real estate at Cornell University.