Around Town
Q&A: Talking to New Canaan Library about Sunday’s Talk with David Jaffe
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New Canaan Library’s “Conversations with Business Leaders” series connects New Canaanites who lead large companies, with fellow residents, for a talk, question-and-answer session and gathering. New Canaan’s Hazel Hobbs, who chairs a committee that finds speakers for the series, said the general idea is for these prominent community members to talk about their business experiences. Past speakers include Chase Carey (News Corporation) Jeffrey Immedlt (GE) and guest speakers George Bodenheimer (Disney Media Networks and ESPN) and David Calhoun (The Nielsen Company). At 5 p.m. on Sunday, the library is presenting New Canaan resident David Jaffe, whose rise in retail from within Dress Barn 22 years ago (he became CEO 10 years in) to his current position as president and CEO of parent company Ascena Retail Group Inc.—a specialty retailer of apparel for women and tween girls that does $5 billion annual in sales and has nearly 4,000 stores in the United States and Canada—is an inspirational story, said library Director Lisa Oldham. A father of four in town who serves as a trustee on the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, among other interests, Jaffe’s background includes business degrees from Wharton (go Quakers) and Stanford, Chemical Venture Partners and Merrrill Lynch.