•Lead strategic planning, product selection, inventory management, and visual merchandising to drive sales and profitability.•Mentor and develop a high-performing merchandising team, fostering innovation and customer focus.•Collaborate cross-functionally with marketing, supply chain, and store operations to ensure cohesive business strategies and successful product launches.

•Provide strategic vision and leadership to a team of 20 that are responsible for merchandising, buying, sourcing, development, site merchandising, design, technical design, inventory management, and merchandise planning.• Lead the product development of seasonal collections as well as branded partner strategy with strategic line plans that align with the company’s financial goals and initiatives.• Direct the planning and execution of annual financial budgets and in-season forecasting to maximize sales, margins, and inventory management.

• Successfully migrated to new warehouse, NetSuite ERP system, new reverse logistics system/company, and brought customer service in-house.• Improved 2019 margin over previous year by 490 basis points by negotiating better costing with vendors, improved promotional strategy, and better channel management.• Worked with cross-functional teams on product fit, marketing, and customer service to cut our YTD return rate by 50%.

• Develop and execute concept financial and merchandising plans. Responsible for inventory forecasting, planning, replenishment and assortment of all products. Execute strategies and tactics for improving inventory turns, GMROI, and in-stock rates.• Collaborate with Target partners on business, planning, inventory, and sales goals. Suggest what inventory investments to make each cycle. Make sure core product has enough W.O.H. to support sales.• Identify risks and opportunities by collection and SKU while partnering with merchant counterparts to develop and implement strategies to protect and achieve sales and inventory goals.

• Successfully launched a new brand from conception for over 10,000 SKUs. • Developed and presented pre-season sales, margin and inventory plans by department to achieve division level goals. Managed in-season departmental stock levels to maximize inventory investments.• Created and presented forecasts and action plans for monthly open-to-buy meetings in order to manage the profitability of the division and departments and meet or exceed plan goals.• Identified risks and opportunities by department, collection and SKU and partnered with merchant counterparts to develop and implement strategies to protect and achieve sales and inventory plan and forecast goals.• Supervised, developed and trained a team of 5 to ensure optimal performance and compliance with company goals and core values. Created career development plans to assist direct reports in securing promotions.

• Suggest strategies to drive sales on key categories/items• Maintain focus on the bottom line while simultaneously handling multiple tasks, information and responsibilities• Analyze historical data and current trends to identify opportunities and risks by department, subclass, collection and sku• Create and present department level plans that support division and department level strategies • Develop and build collection and sku level sales plan with supporting investment quantities and accurate flow forecasts• Manage the reconciliation of top down to bottom up financial plans

• Responsible for organizing fundraising, networking, and social events for the 3,000+ members of the Missouri Alumni in the Bay Area • Managed to get chapter funding from Mizzou for the first time in 4 years after being President only 9 months by meeting all of the chapter requirements

• Promoted to Control Buyer to effectively manage merchandise profitability of 4 departments’ in-season sales, financial, and inventory performance while making adjustments as needed. Adjustments to assortment and promotional planning increased quarterly profits by $1.2M vs. plan • Created seasonal financial plans to guarantee optimal inventory investment, increase merchandise flow, and reduce markdowns to ultimately maximize profitability. As a result, these seasonal plans increased our quarterly profit by 4.6%• Improved profit margin by 70 basis points in Q1 through management of markdowns and the reduction of exit inventory levels from 12% to 6%• Supervised, developed, and trained several direct reports, ensuring optimal performance and compliance with company goals/objectives• Operated as a team leader responsible for communicating financial strategies to vendors and departments heads, resulting in increased cohesiveness, improved efficiency, and enhanced effectiveness

-Assisted Control Buyer with the day-to-day activities of issuing and confirming purchase orders, tracking orders from point of origin to Distribution Center, forecasting sales, and monitoring inventory levels to achieve financial targets of sales and inventory turn.

• Provided vendors with accurate future forecasted receipt flows and negotiate inventory levels on a monthly basis• Managed Open-to-Buy dollars while writing weekly orders that average $3 million for multiple departments • Responsible for identifying sales and margin opportunities by assessing business performance and initiating corrective actions that minimize risk for a $172 million business unit• Utilized replenishment systems to execute assortment and inventory strategies for over 15,000 SKU’s that maximize sales and inventory productivity and maintaining acceptable in-stocks for the consumer• Managed tracking and expediting of all purchase orders for on-time delivery

• Utilized replenishment systems to execute assortment and inventory strategies for over 20,000 SKU’s that maximize sales and inventory productivity and maintaining acceptable in-stocks for the consumer• Partnered with Buyer to pre-plan and assort programs based on program and store selling potential as well as develop and execute presentation minimums and Plan-O-Gram standards • Selected to become part of the Pre-Receiving Task Force to assist in researching and resolving issues along the supply chain by dealing with distribution centers in an expedient manner, resulting in a 78% increase in on-time inventory to 173 stores in order to meet peak business demands

• Supported Technical Designer in determining and approving quality sewing construction and fit specifications for six proprietary brands • Partnered with a Technical Designer and 8 overseas vendors to create construction details and specifications for the development packages of over 400 styles a year • Facilitated technical fitting with a Technical Designer, design team, management, and merchants to identify necessary corrections of areas totaling excess of $160 million in annual sales