Hired to launch the Kmart business being taken internally after 25 years managed by an outside company. Tasked to hire team of Buyers, Associate Buyers, and Inventory Director and Planners. • Successfully recruited the team and launched the business, beating sales and margin plan by over 5%. Results led to promotion to oversee both the Sears and Kmart formats.• Grew annual volume by 15% to $407M and margin dollar growth of 18%. This was achieved by increasing the penetration of Fashion business by 25%, which accounted for 50% of margin growth.• Managed staff of , 7 Buyers and 12 Associate Buyers. Developed two buyers who were promoted to DMMs, and earned a reputation as a net exporter of talent within the organization.• Led the development of strong private labels and exclusive brands, including Bongo, Route 66, Jaclyn Smith, Sofia Vergara, and Kim Kardashian Collection.

Recruited by Chief Merchandising Officer to turnaround an underperforming home division, with a focus on making assortments current and relevant. • Re-launched Home Textiles business, adding Cannon as the flagship brand. Introduced ready-to-assemble furniture, secured business relationship with Keurig, and placed stationary business on reverse purchase order, keeping the inventory owned by the manufacturer until customer purchase.• Elevated the performance of the staff of 1 DMM, 7 buyers, and 7 assistant buyers.

After achieving strong results in women’s dress /casual shoes, was promoted and challenged with improving the under-performing women’s sandal/boots, which produced no revenue growth for previous two years.• Grew sales from $475M to $520M and increased margin from 46.5% to 52.5% in sandals/boots. Drove profit objectives by elevating in-house brand fashion credibility by trend identification and merchandising. Traveled Europe to identify trends, key items, and color. • Managed and developed staff of 4 Buyers, 6 Assistant Buyers, 4 Allocation Analysts, and 2 Financial Planners. Known for recruiting and retaining internal top talent. • Recipient of Chairman’s Award of Excellence for 2004 financial results.

Building on success as a Fashion Apparel Merchant, was hired to bring new perspective to Women’s business.• Grew sales from $350M to $410M with margins going from 46.2% to 51.1% in dress / casuals. Drove profit objectives by leadership in developing merchandise that made the lines far more current. Kept existing customer base pleased while expanding the Contemporary and Junior assortment penetration.• Provided strong direction to change front-of-store presentation to a greater percentage of women’s shoes, better expressing the new fashion direction. Increased presentation space from 20% to 60% women’s.• Increased turn by reducing depth of basic product without sacrificing in-stock, and placing inventory dollars into faster turning Missy Contemporary and Junior product.• Recipient of Chairman’s Award of Excellence for 2002 for innovative merchandising and presentation.

Challenged with leading the largest Division in the company during a time of extreme cultural change from a de-centralized to a centralized buying system, while concurrently growing the business. Successfully launched the new process across the company within a year.• Drove revenue from $1.0B to $1.2B while increasing gross margin dollars by 28% on a mature business.• Led and coached team of 10 Buyers, 21 Associate Buyers and 2 on-line/catalog media managers through company’s largest cultural change. Managed outside Consultants to facilitate centralization.• Accomplished sales and margin improvement by increasing the percent to total of Private Brands from 40% to 50%. Strategy allowed assortments a higher level of fashion appeal and improved margin. • Concurrent with the increased Private Brand business, improved the National Brand margin by 2 points by eliminating fringe brands with no compelling appeal, improving profitability on core national brands.• Recognized for superior communication and leadership skills in transitioning the company to the centralized system, as well as shifting assortment mix to increase sales and margin.

After successfully launching the St. Johns Bay brand in Women’s, was challenged to elevate the St. Johns Bay merchandise assortment across the entire company, including Men’s and Kid’s.• Drove overall St. Johns Bay revenue for retail, on-line, and catalog from $820M to $900M while raising gross margin dollars by 27%. • Managed 4 Brand Managers, 6 Assistant Brand Managers, 4 CAD designers, and 4 technical designers. Developed and promoted 2 Brand Managers to Directors of Product Development.• Achieved sales and margin growth by providing strong leadership in the Men’s assortment to reflect current styling while maintaining the positioning of the Women’s assortments. This resulted in growing the Men’s business from $310M to $357M and increasing margin dollars by 21%.

Challenged to develop and launch the company’s private label brand St. Johns Bay in the Women’s area. The positioning of the brand was Contemporary Missy casual apparel; was previously only a Men’s Brand.• Developed entire merchandise strategy including core programs, fashion programs, good-better-best strategy, retail and margin structure, and total annual financial plan for retail and catalog.• Traveled Europe three times per year for trend and item development and Asia twice a year for sourcing.• Took business from zero to $300M and received Brand Manager of the Year Award for 1995.Began career in Store Management Executive Trainee Program.