Marcy Syms found her guiding principles and life philosophy in Golda Meir who when dealing with Israeli peace negotiations in the Middle East said, “Nothing in life just happens, you have to have the stamina to meet the obstacles and overcome them.” In forging her life path, Marcy has been an agent of change, a pioneer, and a provocateur who is always “changing the conversation.”
An independent director for private and public companies and social entrepreneur, Marcy Syms is the founding trustee and President of the Sy Syms Foundation which supports programs in education, scientific research, societal justice and the arts. Since its inception, the Sy Syms Foundation has awarded over $60 million dollars in grants.
From 2012 to 2021, Marcy was President of the TPD Group LLC, a multigenerational succession planning and consulting company.
Marcy also serves on several not for profit boards including the ERA Project at Columbia Law School, CUNY’s Macaulay Honors School, and the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, Leadership Council Tanenbaum and Advisory Board, and Have Art Will Travel. Since 2015, she has been on the board of National Public Radio and is a past Overseer of Boston University.
For over a decade, Marcy Syms was CEO of Syms Corp, which operated in 16 states selling designer and brand name apparel and housewares to “Educated Consumers”.
When Syms Corp had its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, Marcy became its first president and one of the youngest female presidents of a New York Stock Exchange company. She helped lead the company from a New York based retailer to a national retailer with 50 stores.
Marcy earned her MS in communications and public relations at Boston University College of Communication and received the college’s Distinguished Alumni Award for service to the profession in 2002. She sat on the Board of Overseers of BU from 2004 to 2018, by which time, a one billion dollar endowment had been successfully completed. At Parsons School of Design, Marcy helped create and taught the Retail Entrepreneur curriculum.
She recently retired from the board of Benco Dental, the third largest distributor of dental supplies and equipment in the US, where she was on the Finance Committee since 2014. She also served on the board of Rite Aid Corp fron 2005 to 2020, where she was the Chair of the Comp Committee and served on Audit and Nom/Gov.
Marcy is a Founding Advisory Board member of the ERA Project at Columbia Law School which was launched in 2021 and past Chair of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality which secured the 38th State ratification of the ERA Amendment.
Marcy is a 2022 fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) bringing her executive leadership experience from retail and serving on the Women’s Politics and Policy Board at the Harvard Kendy School. Marcy is newly elected to the Board of Advisors of the Safra Center of Ethics at Harvard University and the Forward and also serving on the boards of Veteran Feminists of American and the NPR Foundation.
A long time supporter of the Arts, Public Television, and regional theatre, Marcy continues her love and recognition of the importance of the arts in our culture with her current involvement in Broadway production.
Marcy is a much sought after speaker on the subjects of family business, succession planning, public and not for profit boards, women in business and board governance diversity.
