Relaunched Contract Excellence tools, capabilities and strategies across Negotiations, Finance, Legal, Product to drive improved visibility and management of enterprise merchandising contracts. Led several multi-million $ strategic merchandising contracts across Home & Apparel businesses, including:- Greeting Cards: Complex, multi-variable financial modeling, supply chain assessment, changing market conditions- Apparel Fashion: Cross pyramid licencor collaboration; Coached senior executives, defined and executed negotiation strategy and financial model - Received VP Award: May, 2017Leading enterprise initiative to standardize vendor payment terms and digital funding, Driving SVP & VP stakeholder alignment, defining execution vision and role responsibilities of project team and managing complex cross functional partner dependencies.Amplified internal and external negotiation expertise through The Gap Partnership Complete Skilled Negotiator and Strategic Negotiator programs.

• Leading creation of Enterprise Space Strategy and analytical framework across total merchandising hierarchy. Leveraged omnichannel financial, competitive and guest insights to driven cross company engagement with application testing to being in 2016. • Recognized by Guest Center of Excellence as an Outstanding Partner for leading Style EKI business assessment. Delivered senior executive-level summation allowing for leadership to drive stronger strategic decisions.• Directly supported Home and Apparel Merchandising SVP and DMM’s by leading alignment of key cross functional partners and delivering cohesive strategy proposals to drive traffic, increase guest conversion, leverage promotional tools and deliver financial and market share growth. • Synthesized a multitude of omnichannel analytics including consumer purchasing behavior, traffic patterns, promotional impact, assortment analysis, market share, competitive insights, and trend/industry reports.• Foster onboarding and development of MSI Experts through a proactive leadership culture rewarding curiosity and initiative. Focused on building strong project pipeline to drive visibility and opportunity for hands on development.

Founded the "Living the Dream" Joe Plant Memorial Fund to give back to the community in ways that Joe was passionate about; health, fitness and service to others. The mission of the Joe Plant Memorial Fund is to give other's those same opportunities.We support the educational needs of future law enforcement officers, achieved through a scholarship fund at St. Cloud State University, Joe's alma mater. Since 2008, we have raised over $25,000 in scholarship funds for the St. Cloud State University Criminal Justice Program.More recently, the mission has expanded to support Parent Heart Watch, dedicated to eliminating preventable deaths in youth from sudden cardiac arrest. The memorial fund supports Parent Heart Watch at the national level and local level. I direct an annual 5K Run/Walk fundraiser, leading all marketing, registration, vendor interaction and financial responsibilities.

• Lead creation of merchandising assortment, promotion and financial business strategy for $110M Toss Pillow, Throw Blanket and Slipcover business.• Delivered strong financial improvements through refined assortment architecture, broadened strategy scope, space and pricing optimization and product rebranding. • Drove superior product development through relationship management and strong engagement in strategy direction across cross functional team. • Received two SVP recognition awards for strategically refining approach to the business, strong execution and delivery of improved financial results to support strategy reinvention.

• Managed inventory planning and execution of $1B apparel business through direct leadership and development of 8 executive team members. • Delivered strong inventory instocks and improved guest experience for advertised and core merchandise programs. • Developed and implemented strategy to deliver improved flexibility and instock presence on key volume driving categories. • Achieved 94% Favorability within Leadership Upward Feedback Survey.• Fostered successful collaboration by introducing cross functional partnership model that was adopted across merchandising.

• Provided inventory planning expertise and strategy guidance for the Newborn/Infant/Toddler & Big Boy Big Girl Apparel merchandise planning team of 30 Managers, Senior Business Analysts and Business Analysts.• Surpassed financial contribution goals, driving $1.6B in contribution dollars across the business through superior management of inventory investment and logistical flow.

• Drove superior inventory investment and directed flow of product within Outdoor Sports to surpass intock and inventory management goals. • Drove a focus on expense management, resulting in significant reduction in contribution expenses and improved bottom line profitability.• As Division Transition Captain, introduced Low Volume POG segmentation strategy and delivered green transition scorecard.

• Drove collaboration across multiple city partners to market Minneapolis and Hilton Minneapolis as priority convention destination. Leveraged customized proposals and comprehensive site visit experiences, strong negotiations and building and maintaining strong relationships to exceed sales revenue goals for city wide and hotel specific convention business.

• Responsible for sales quotas for small group meeting needs. Focused on client relationship building, delivering customized proposals, strong negotiations and providing exemplary customer service to exceed sales revenue goals and achieve promotion to Convention Center Sales manager in under 2 years.