Chairman & Ceo
Founder and Chief Executive of a Direct Sales Fashion Jewelry company from start-up to over $110 million annual retail sales, with 50,000 active independent sales contractors across the US. Simultaneously served as Chief Designer leading the fashion and brand direction for over 22 years.• Identified an opportunity in the fashion jewelry market, leveraging private seed investment to create Cookie Lee brand concept from scratch• Formulated and devised business strategy and format, identifying direct sales as the chosen channel of distribution• Analyzed the competitive marketplace and identified salable trends to bring to market, continuously designed new products on a seasonal basis, delivering 400 new SKUs each bi-annual season, in addition to monthly and holiday offerings• Sourced competent manufacturers across Asia (Taiwan, China, Korea, India) to partner on the feasibility, profitability, design, development and revisions of mass produced productso Increased margins from keystone pricing up to 10x margin on a per SKU basis• Scaled for growth by centralizing product distribution to a consolidated warehousing hub in Houston, TX (approx. 150,000 sq. ft. and variable workforce of 100+ employees)• Served as face of the brand, including press coverage, advertising, public relations and speaking engagements at industry events and conferences• Grew a salesforce of independent contractors from a regional to a national presence, reaching 50,000 consultants across the country• Responsible for the continuous recruitment, training, development and sales recognition of the workforce, including annual sales conferences (up to 5,000 annual attendees) and sales incentive trips (up to 1,500 annual contest winners)• Employed up to 330+ corporate employees at a single given time, encompassing multiple functions: c-suite, finance, accounting, HR, product design, PR/marketing, IT, sales, operations/inventory management and warehousing