OMG as IMG prez leaves

IMG Models’ longtime president Ivan Bart is out after 10 years as the head of the vastly powerful talent agency, Page Six has learned.

The veteran agent-turned-executive told Page Six yesterday that he had decided to step down. But insiders strongly suspect he was canned.

On Tuesday, higher-ups said in a video call with IMG offices across the globe that Bart — one of the most influential figures in the fashion industry — was leaving to take a consultancy position, a source told Page Six.

When we called him yesterday afternoon, a stunned-seeming Bart initially told us: “I have absolutely no comment.”

But then he called us back and said, “I am stepping into a new role as a senior adviser.”

“I am going to be advising all IMG Models,” he added, presumably meaning their international outposts. “That’s what I want to say.”

“I have years of experience and I am giving my guidance and counsel,” he said.

Industry journal Business of Fashion previously wrote that Bart “has guided the agency to represent such success stories as Kate Moss, Carolyn Murphy, Gisele Bündchen, Joan Smalls, Kate Upton, Lily Donaldson and Tyra Banks.”

We hear that insiders in the company aren’t sold on the idea that he quit. “There’s lots of upheaval [at IMG Models],” the source said.

But Bart insists that he was not fired, telling us: “It’s a mutually agreed-upon decision for me to be senior adviser.”

IMG Models was founded in 1987 and is one of the top agencies in the world, with clients such as Hailey Bieber, Alek Wek, Ashley Graham and sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid. Bündchen was a client for 22 years before she parted ways in 2021 and took her representation in-house, handing the reins to her manager and twin sister, Patricia. Bart started at the company in 1994.

A rep for the modeling agency did not immediately get back to us.