J. Christopher Burch Biography

J. Christopher Burch (born March 28, 1953) is an entrepreneur active in the lifestyle brand and retail sectors. He is the founder and CEO of Burch Creative Capital, a firm with offices in New York City and Shanghai that manages venture investments and brand development and co-founder of Tory Burch LLC along with his ex-wife fashion designer Tory Burch.

Early life

Burch was raised in Wayne, Pennsylvania, in a middle class family. His mother Robin Sinkler, an Episcopalian, was from a Philadelphia Main Line family and his father, John Walter Burch, a Roman Catholic, was one of 10 kids born to a middle-class Baltimore family. His father owned a distributor of mining equipment and supplies.

Career

Christopher Burch was an entrepreneur and investor in the fashion industry and in real estate. He became a billionaire in 2012, with Forbes Magazine's profile of him in its annual The World's Billionaires stating that the 2012 valuation of Burch's majority stake in C. Wonder pushed his net worth over the ten figure mark. In addition to his personal investments, he was an investor with the Guggenheim Partners.

Fashion industry

In 1976, while an undergraduate at Ithaca College, Burch and his brother Robert started Eagle's Eye apparel with a $2,000 investment. The two bought the sweaters for $10 each and then sold them for $15. Burch noticed that the students around him were constantly wearing "preppy" sweaters, and decided to find a factory to produce a new brand so that he could sell them door-to-door on campus. His operation soon expanded to other campuses, where at first he sold them on his own, and later he hired employees nationally. Eventually, he sold them through retails stores. The name of the company was an homage to their father, whose nickname was Eagle. Over the next decade, the company expanded to $140 million in sales and a national distribution footprint, including more than 50 of its own retail stores. The company was partially sold to Swire Group, in 1989, and entirely, in 1998 in a deal that valued the brand at $60 million.

In 2004, Burch helped his then wife of eight years to launch the Tory Burch fashion label, investing in the business. He served as co-Chairman of the company. He also owned 28.3%, selling half of it in December 2012, as the company was estimated to be worth $3.5 billion. He then established J. Christopher Capital LLC in 2008, which was later renamed Burch Creative Capital. The company was developed to incubate his new brands and to manage his investments. In 2011, he invested in two new fashion companies, including C. Wonder, described as a "a colorful and preppy chain of boutiques with a flagship store in New York's SoHo". Burch stated that the company was inspired by the idea of "shopping for great value be[ing] a luxurious and fun experience". In 2011, he also invested in the Monika Chiang fashion line. In 2013 C. Wonder sold a ten percent stake in the company to Fidelity Investments for $35 million, valuing the company at $350 million.

Real estate

In 2004, Burch partnered with architect Philippe Stark and hotelier Alan Faena to develop the [[Faena Hotel+Universe]] in Buenos Aires. The investment into the building, first built in 1902 as a grain storage facility, was in excess of $100 million. In 2005, Burch purchased a luxury home in Southampton, New York for $14 million, and sold the home for $25 million four months later after renovating the property. Burch then founded J.B. Christopher, a supplier of construction materials to real estate developers, in 2006. In 2011, Burch and his partner Austin Hearst completed the development of a $19 million luxury home developments in Nantucket, Massachusetts. In 2013, Burch purchased the Nihiwatu resort on the island of Sumba, a 27 villa estate resort near Bali.

Other investments

In 1993, Burch was a producer for the feature-length romantic comedy film Watch It, directed by Tom Flynn, which received a favorable review from the New York Times. Burch was then one of the earliest investors in the Internet IPO for Internet Capital Group, being connected to the company by a friend of his who helped managed the company. Burch has made several investments in telecommunications, including Aliph and Powermat. He was also an investor in the bottled water company, Voss Water. Burch is also an investor in the online office retailer Poppin.

Personal life

Burch has been married twice:

• In 1982, he married Susan Cole in an Episcopalian ceremony. They had three daughters: Alexandra "Pookie" (b. 1985), Elizabeth "Izzie" (b. 1986), and Louisa "Weezie"(b. 1989).
• In 1996, he married the Jewish American fashion designer Tory Robinson with whom he has three sons: twins Henry and Nicholas (b. 1997) and Sawyer (b. 2001). They divorced in 2007.

Burch is on the boards of the Rothman Institute Orthopedic Foundation. He is a past president of The Pierre Hotel Co-op Board, and a past board member of Guggenheim Partners, and The Continuum Group. In 2013, Burch donated $1.3 million to his alma mater the Tilton School, and was on the school's Board of Trustees from 1982-1985.