Developed and led 11-person technical design team for men's and kid's categories. Established guidelines ensuring proper fit, construction and quality compliance to organization standards. Provided leadership, established strong relationships and influence with internal departments, vendors and suppliers and ensured deadlines were met.• Recognized as Associate of 3rd Quarter 2012 for outstanding contribution to the Private Brand Division.• Earned Founders Award in 2014 for achieving profitable sales growth and market share gains in J.Ferrar suit separates. • Key contributor in development and implementation of Vendor Technical Design Certification Program, training 30+ suppliers on fit expectations, as well as how to approve their pre-production samples, resulting in 25% reduction in samples.

Oversaw technical engineering process including pass-off, final production approval, and final product quality for all Filson products. Drove product compliance to organization standards through defining proper fit, construction and quality standards. Collaborated with internal departments, vendors and suppliers to ensure all deadlines were met. • Created block patterns as starting point for styles, resulting in a reduction in sampling costs.• Established accurate grade rule tables in Gerber Accumark, driving consistent fit and shorter production times. • Reduced number of samples to achieve approval for production.

Devised and led execution of strategic plans for technical design, managing and developing 17-person technical team. Partnered with sourcing to research manufacturers, managing vendor and agent relationships, and travelling overseas for on-boarding process and review of production activities.• Opened and managed dialogue with merchandising, developing understanding of business needs and winning support for technical design changes with potential for improving speed-to-market and reducing lead times. • Contributed to customization and deployment of FlexPLM software, driving increased departmental efficiencies by communicating technical design needs to IT group.• Developed on-boarding documentation for new vendors and agents worldwide, including India and Asia, focusing on achieving product, pricing, quality, and schedule goals through evaluating capabilities, reviewing processes, and explaining management approach and methods of communication.• Created standard operating procedure (SOP) manual, communicating company expectations and processes.• Led how-to-measure manual revisions mapped to FlexPLM, replacing multiple manuals for various groups.• Created technical guidelines to ensure differentiation of new brands (Calibrate, Two AM, Ivy & Moon, Sweet Ivy, Pure Stuff, Did Too) based on direction from design and merchandising, and competitive analysis; prepared standards and specifications for construction, fabric types, quality and price points for proper positioning. • Instituted block patterns and updated size grading to align with ASTM standards.

Directed technical design on catalog/online products and quality for distribution center using AQL of 2.5, directing 5 technical designers and 6 auditors. Managed relationships with manufacturers to ensure compliance with company standards, focusing on communicating company expectations, overseeing on-boarding process, reporting results of statistical audits, initiating charge-backs and advising on methods of achieving standards.• Key contributor to increasing profitability through reduced return rate by focusing on improving quality and fit of catalog and online products. • Improved efficiencies in technical design by creating technical packages, instituting size grading and establishing methods to evaluate and achieve proper fit.

February 1998 to February 2001• Created a Fit Department of five specialists and developed a three-year strategic plan to accomplish company goals. • Identified methods of achieving proper fit for international markets that included recommending the sale of petite sizes only to the Japanese market and re-aligning the conversion of U.S. sizes for the United Kingdom and Germany.GROUP QUALITY MANAGER, Men’s and Women’s TailoredMarch 1997 to February 1998• Managed six technical designers in men’s tailored, women’s tailored, sleepwear, and shoes & accessories product categories.SENIOR TECHNICAL DESIGNERNovember 1996 to March 1997• Performed technical design and sourcing functions required to translate design/merchandising objectives into technical packages and samples approved for production.FIT SPECIALIST/TECHNICAL DESIGNER, Women's TailoredJanuary 1993 to November 1996• Improved consistency of fit for the Women’s Tailored category and reduced return rates by 8 points during a time of growth (1993 to 1998) from a catalog section to a specialty catalog. • Established patterns for use by vendors, reducing product development time while enhancing fit consistency.