From News Gazette “paper girl” and City-wide Flag Football Champion, Anna Jain Bakst has come a long way in making her mark on the world through the American fashion industry.
After moving to Champaign from California and attending Bottenfield, Edison and Central, Anna and her sister Avra, captured the 1978 IHSA Girls doubles championship while leading their Central Maroons to a second-place team finish. She credits her childhood experiences; participating in the Eddie Albert Farm Program, student council, band and high school sports (tennis and basketball) as opportunities that shaped her drive and focus for the years ahead.
Anna and her twin Avra headed off for Purdue University to play tennis and pursue industrial engineering degrees. After college, Anna began her career with IBM as a marketing representative and then with Baxter Travel focusing on engineering and manufacturing applications before attending Stanford University and receiving her MBA in 1987.
Her next opportunities led her into the fashion industry where her career spanned over 25 years–managing and cultivating businesses for American fashion houses. Anna spent 12 years at Donna Karan, eventually named President /General Manager of the footwear division where she launched and developed the Donna Karan global fashion footwear business which ultimately earned $130 million in annual revenues.
In 2003 Anna began with Michael Kors where she was the Group President of Accessories and Footwear leading the global design, production, and merchandising teams as well as overseas domestic wholesale distribution. In 2018 she served as Brand President and CEO of Kate Spade and most recently has served as interim CEO and Board Chair of Modern Meadow, a privately held American biotechnology company that uses biofabrication to create sustainable materials for the wellness of people and the planet.
Currently, Anna is co-founder of We-AR4, a New York-based responsible fashion brand focused on immediate sustainable impact based on her decades of experiences in the traditional fashion industry. We-AR4 crafts designs from existing luxury deadstock and upcycled materials. In so doing, We-AR4 creates a direct path to finding a new life for materials that would otherwise become waste.
