Karen Greenberg, Former Calvin Klein Exec, 60
She had been president of Calvin Klein Sportswear since 2012.
Karen Greenberg, a vibrant and energetic executive who was president of Calvin Klein Sportswear, a unit of G-III Apparel Group Ltd., died at New Rochelle Montefiore Hospital Monday morning at the age of 60.
The cause of death was esophageal cancer, which she had been diagnosed with last September.
Greenberg was born Jan. 18, 1959, in Manhattan and grew up in White Plains, N.Y., until she was 13. Her family then moved to Dallas, where she eventually started her career at Dillard’s, rising to buyer. During her three years at Dillard’s, she used to buy Liz Claiborne apparel and cofounder and then-chief executive officer Jerry Chazen asked permission from Dillard’s to allow her to move to Claiborne’s New York office and work for them. She spent 27 years at Liz Claiborne, rising to division president, responsible for the group’s midtier apparel.
Greenberg worked with every Claiborne leader from Art Ortenberg to Chazen to Paul Charron and Bill McComb. “She was the only one who worked for all the ceo’s,” said her husband, Neil Laufer.