Karen Michael Email and Phone Number

Responsibilities as an Inventory Manager for the Kmart store format included - Managing the supply chain from beginning to end for two businesses totaling $310 million in sales - Managing two Senior Inventory Analysts - Communication with vendors, both domestic and import - Forecasting inventory needs for the year by week and projecting the ordering cycle based on lead times for the different programs - Maintaining the systems to manage over 3,000 SKUs. Responsibilities as an Inventory Management Planner for the Kmart store format included - Planning at the SKU level by week for over 1,800 SKUs for two departments, totalling $110 million in sales and the highest margin dollars for the Soft Home area - Planning sales , markdowns, inventory in stores and the DCs, maintained margin, and advertising or promotional selling, as well as mark down sell throughs in the Assortment Planning systemAdditional Information: - Trained three Senior Inventory Analysts so that they were promoted to Inventory Manager within a year of the start of their training - Received a quarterly team award for excellence for the third quarter of 2013, for launching a new towel line in less than established lead times - Improved the turnover for the departments from below 2 turns per year to 2.76 turns per year - Worked on corporate committees as an Inventory Management SME to improve processes, and for the implementation of the new advertising software - Received awards for the most accurate plans for the business unit for the second quarter of 2014, beating 25 other planners, came in second in the third quarter of 2014, and was at the top for the fourth quarter of 2014.

Manager, Insight New Systems Installation Project (2006 - 2007)Responsibilities included - Being a member of the Reporting Team liaising between the functional teams and the technology teams. - Member of the Reporting Swat team charged with validation of all planning metrics after the initial Go Live with the systems. - Member of the Merchandise Planning functional team, with a variety of responsibilities, including serving as the Insight Lead for Merchandise Planning at Bath and Body Works as the new systems went on line. Additional Information: - Oversaw the conversion of the Merchandise Plan from the legacy system to the new systems with an 85% accuracy rate - Trained a portion of the system to a total of 25 people, including Merchandise Planners, Managers, and Directors - Received a quarterly team award for excellence as a member of the Reporting Swat team - Gained experience using the following systems : JDA Enterprise Planning; JDA Intactix and Manugistics, SAP, Optiva, and Microstrategy Enterprise Data Warehouse

Merchandise Planning Manger (2004 - 2006)Responsible for a $325 million book of business sales, inventory, markdowns, and maintained margin in four different store formats, with three direct reporting merchandise planners, two indirect reporting planners, and a team of five allocation analysts with an indirect reporting relationship.Additional Information: - Oversaw the financial management of a $70 million store format, in addition to the core and Flagship store formats, including sales, inventory, markdowns, maintained margin, and merchandise assortment working closely with the Retail and Commercialization Merchant teams to insure the format’s growth and success - Assisted a team that devised a strategy to deliver holiday merchandise into stores in a way that the inventory was delivered just in time for the holiday floor set, without crippling the distribution center or stores back rooms - Hired and trained two new Planners - Received team awards for performance excellence in the fourth quarter of 2004, and the second quarter of 2005, a was a member of teams nominated for awards for the fourth quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005

Merchandise Planner (1997 - 2004)Responsible for a $250 million department’s sales, inventory, markdowns, and maintained margin. Experienced dollar and percentage margin growth every year except one. Planned an additional department with $20 million sales in the last year Additional Information: - Created preseason plans, two seasons in advance, while forecasting sales in the current season , including giving Merchants style / SKU and costing goals prior to the Merchants working with the Design and Sourcing teams - Worked closely with the Sourcing and Production teams to insure the timely implementation of the plans and with the Allocation team to insure timely allocations by style, according to the plan in preseason, and guidance with allocation to trends in season - Served as a key member of the committee to implement the monthly planning process for the Fashion departments, the goal being standardization of the best practices for the monthly Merchandise Planning meetings - Partnered with the Arthur Administrator to develop enhancements that made the planning process more adaptable in the Arthur system. Proficient in the use of the Arthur planning system - Received eight individual awards for excellence from 1994 - 2003 - Awarded a team excellence award for the first quarter performance in 1997

Operation Planner | Allocations (1994 - 1997)Responsible for purchasing all gift set components and finished goods, with sales of $126.7 million, and an average monthly inventory of $52.2 million . Maintained the Open-to-Buy for the Gift Set and Componentry departments. Responsible for buying replenishment quantities for face care and fine fragrances. Trained one new Operational Planner and one new Allocation Analyst. Allocated gift sets during the peak Christmas selling period, including planning the inventory by style / SKU per store. There were over 300 stores and 350 SKUs. Additional Information: - Maintained communication links between the Merchandising team and the Manufacturing group in order to insure the timely flow of information and delivery of merchandise to the distribution facilities - Developed monthly rolling forecasts to all vendors with significant volume with the gift set area, while suggesting methods of disposing of excess component inventory - Coordinated the initial set-up and implementation of a new manufacturing system for the company - Recognized as a key player in the gift set task force that was charged with improving the process of producing gifts, from the inception of the idea until the product arrived on the shelf - Developed time lines for the merchandising team, so the team would be aware of lead times inherent in inventory management and production