Bebe's Neda Mashouf Resigns

Neda Mashouf, vice chair of the board of Bebe Stores Inc. and one of the majority shareholders of its stock, recently resigned from the board and from the company, which is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area town of Brisbane, Calif.

Mashouf was also the inspiration for the company’s new footwear concept boutique Neda by Bebe, which recently opened at the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall.

The announcement of Mashouf’s resignation was made in a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed on Nov. 9. The document also stated that Neda Mashouf and Bebe founder and chairman Manny Mashouf have filed for divorce. Together they own 72 percent of the company’s outstanding stock.

Bebe’s Securities and Exchange Commission documents identify Neda Mashouf as a key employee of the company. However, her quiet departure created few waves in the investment community, according to Jeffrey Van Sinderen, an equities analyst at Los Angeles–based B. Riley & Associates.

“If [chief executive] Greg Scott left Bebe, it would be a negative event. But Neda leaving is not a significant event. It will have little impact on the business,” he said. The company’s stock price did not seem to react to the departure, according to Van Sinderen.

Bebe reported an increase of 5.8 percent for its same-store sales in November. It was better than the 4.2 percent increase of the same period in the previous year, according to retail analyst Liz Pierce, who works for Roth Capital Partners, based in Newport Beach, Calif. But it came in below her estimates of a 7 to 9 percent increase.

Bebe, which is celebrating 30 years in business in 2006, currently operates more than 248 stores across the United States.

Neda by Bebe debuted on Sept. 28. The store was also inspired by Neda Mashouf’s own experiences shopping for shoes. “I wasn’t able to find a specialty store with the edits and the point of view that I liked,” she told California Apparel News shortly after the store debut. “There was room for a new brand.”

Andrew Asch