Manny Mashouf
Manny Mashouf is the founder and board chairman of the highly successful bebe chain of women’s clothing stores.
Manny Mashouf was born in 1938 in Tehran, Iran. He came to the USA in his teens and settled first in Chicago, then in San Francisco. Arriving in the U.S. from Iran with minimal English skills but with high aspirations, Mr. Mashouf rapidly mastered the language, then went to San Francisco State University and graduated with a political science degree in 1966.
He ran a steakhouse before opening women's boutique, Bebe, in 1976. The name came about during a discussion Manny was having with his friends about the essence of being. The group began to discuss the phrase, which inspired the name, "to be or not to be" from the play Hamlet. Manny Mashouf opened the first bebe store in San Francisco during a time when three categories dominated the women's wear market: junior, bridge and misses. Having discovered a demographic that was neither junior nor bridge, Manny aimed to break the mold by offering this under-represented population of stylish women distinctive and inspirational fashion bearing an unmistakable hint of sensuality. His concept stuck and bebe reaped early success.
Bebe designs, develops and produces a distinctive line of contemporary women's apparel and accessories, which it markets under the bebe, bebeSPORT, and 2b bebe brand names. Bebe stores, inc. currently operates 312 stores, of which 215 are bebe stores, 32 are 2b bebe stores, 64 are bebeSPORT stores and 1 is a bebe accessories store.
Manny Mashouf made a donation of $10 million to SFSU, the largest private gift in the university’s history. With success has come Mr. Mashouf’s conviction that he has an obligation to put his wealth to work for the greater good. While his generosity has been broad-based, his major cause of choice has been education: “I believe that the most effective way to improve the quality of our lives for the future is to improve the quality of our children’s education,” he says. Manny Mashouf’s philanthropy, like his intellectual interests, is broad-based. He contributes to many causes in Los Angeles and was recently honored by the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles with its Individual Wish Granter award.
