How Much Mike Jeffries (Net Worth) Earnings?

By David Mudd On Apr 21, 2022

Mike Jeffries is a successful businessman from the United States with a net worth of $300 million dollars. His most well-known role was acting as CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014, a period that saw the brand go from bankruptcy to becoming one of the most valuable stores on the planet, only to have it plummet back to earth once more.

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Early Life and Education

Mike Jeffries was born on July 15, 1944, in the state of Oklahoma. He grew up in Los Angeles, where his father established a network of retail businesses known as Party Time, which he later sold. After graduating from Claremont McKenna College in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in economics, he went on to study at Columbia Business School, where he received his MBA the following year. Mike also spent some time at the London School of Economics, where he studied economics.

Following the completion of his degrees, he worked for a number of different merchants. He spent time in the management training programme at Abraham & Strauss, a department store in New York City, where he received his degree. Alcott & Andrews, Mike's first business venture, was established in 1984. Five years later, the company declared bankruptcy. Following that, Mike went to work for Paul Harris, a garment company based in the Midwest.

Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch, which had been in business for over a century, was purchased out of bankruptcy by Leslie Wexner's Limited Brands in 1988. Jeffries joined Wexner's team shortly after the acquisition was completed. In 1992, he was promoted to the position of CEO.

Because of the brand's bleak future and recent bankruptcy, management was not especially interested in operating the company themselves, and instead delegated practically complete responsibility to Mike Jeffries and his team.

Over the course of the next decade, Mike radically redesigned the company. Abercrombie and Fitch gained enormous popularity among youngsters all over the world as a result of their redesigned and sexier brand image. It was one of Abercrombie & Fitch's key tactics to hire only the most attractive candidates.

Jeffries stated the following at the time:

“We hire good looking people in our stores because good looking people attract other good looking people and we want to market to cool, good looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that.“

Store greeters at Abercrombie & Fitch were well-known for their shirtless appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the brand was at its height of popularity. Music was always blasting from its stores, while cologne and perfume were continually being spritzed around. Abercrombie & Fitch, however, lost their cool over time. Following the financial crisis of 2008, sales plummeted to unprecedented lows.

Following a 40% decline in Abercrombie & Fitch's stock price over the preceding 12 months, analyst Herb Greenberg labelled Mike the “worst CEO of 2013,” and he was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list. Jeffries was also placed on the “Wall of Shame” by Jim Cramer of CNBC.

The company's CEO, Mike Jeffries, resigned on December 9, 2014, following 11 consecutive quarters of underperformance.

Compensation

Mike had a 3 percent stake in Abercrombie & Fitch at the time of his peak ownership. If he still has that 3 percent position now, his shares are worth around $60 million, based on the company's current market capitalization of $2 billion. At the height of the company's stock price, which occurred in late 2007, his 3 percent share was worth approximately $100 million, according to Forbes.

Mike received hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and bonus income in addition to his equity remuneration. Between 2004 and 2007, Mike earned $30 million or more per year on average. In 2008, he received a salary of $72 million. In 2009, the amount was $36.3 million. In 2010, the amount was $38.5 million. In 2011, the amount was $48.1 million. In 2012, he made $8.16 million dollars. In 2013, he made $2.24 million dollars.

After adding everything up, Mike collected around $400 million in salary and bonus compensation throughout the ten-year period between 2004 and 2014.

Private Jet and Other Controversies

One of the more infamous and interesting anecdotes involving Mike Jeffries came to light as a result of a lawsuit filed by a private jet pilot against the former NFL star in 2012. According to the former pilot's lawsuit, he was sacked because he was too old for the job. However, some revelations concerning life aboard the Abercrombie jet, which were revealed over the course of the trial, would soon cast a shadow over the entire legal proceeding.

According to the pilot's pleadings in this lawsuit, the Abercrombie jet was governed by a stringent set of rules, some of which were a little strange to begin with. A further point to mention is that the flight attendants were actually provided by a male modelling agency. As well as some of the Abercrombie jet rules that had to be rigorously adhered to by these male model flight attendants, listed below are some examples:

Flight attendants were required to dress in Abercrombie & Fitch jeans, flip-flops, boxer shorts, and polo shirts, among other things.

Flight attendants were required to answer to all passenger requests with the phrase “No problem,” rather than the more common “Sure” or “Just a moment.”

Attendants were required to “spritz” themselves and the plane with Abercrombie cologne on a regular basis.

Coats were only permitted to be worn on the plane when the temperature was 50 degrees or lower, and all polo shirt collars were required to be flipped backward.

Service staff were required to wear black gloves for cutlery and white gloves for plates of food when preparing and serving meals.

It was mandatory to have the Phil Collins song “Take Me Home” playing on the plane's sound system whenever it took off on a return journey.

Attendants were required to check continuously to guarantee that there were no fingerprints anywhere on the premises.

The bottom of all coats had to be zipped all the way up to the fourth button from the bottom. It was necessary to leave the lowest button undone.

All hats were required to have a brim that was at least two inches thick and that rested in the centre of the forehead.

Those who breached the regulations, including “houseboys” and flight attendants, were reportedly punished with shirtless push-ups.

Personal Life

Mike and Susan Marie Isabel Hansen were married in 1971. They were the parents of a single child.

He supposedly tied the knot with a woman named Annabel Vartanian in September 2013, albeit this has not been confirmed. Mike was supposedly living with a male partner named Matthew Smith at the same time as this alleged marriage took place, according to reports. Today, Mike and Matthew work together to manage the Jeffries Family Office.