Kate Warner Email & Phone Number

Pekin, Il, Us

• Work to identify opportunities to better align our area with business strategies• Provide input and feedback on cost recovery (if any), budget, and investment priorities• Identify if implemented services, products, and solutions are consistent with the business architecture• Collaborate with IT and business leaders to drive product strategy through the definition of customer and market needs• Enable the leveraging of data to drive product results through application of technology and analytics• Provide budget details to Directors, AVPs, and VPs for review and incorporation• Provide input to Directors and AVPs to forecast new skill requirements based on emerging technologies• Execute communication, process, and educational plans for mitigating the disruption of change• Hold teams accountable for delivering results in alignment with department and business strategy. Coach team members on a continuous basis, document performance evaluations, and perform management duties of staff• Work with the teams to resolve operational issues; proactively monitor and troubleshoot system outages, internal server issues, and perform root cause analysis of ongoing problems

Pekin, Il, Us

• Facilitate work activities as Scrum Master among team members using agile and project management techniques• Work with Product Analysts and Product Managers to define/refine scope• Develop work breakdown structures and assist in breaking down features into stories in JIRA• Assist in prioritization efforts for agile teams• Facilitate the gathering of information required for agile team to perform backlog estimation, and capture estimates• Remove potential roadblocks from the path of the delivery team by negotiating conflicts and resolving issues• Help to optimize productivity of resources on agile team• Help to foster self-organization amongst the agile team and ensure that all team members have the tools and training required to perform efficiently• Contribute to the development of delivery standards and tracking methods/tools

Pekin, Il, Us

• Work closely with the product team to define requirements and associated features/user stories• Translate business/technical requirements into user stories and test cases• Evaluate the testability of requirements and help identify any potential requirement gaps/discrepancies based on the system• Contribute towards testing strategy• Deliver test cases to the Automation team to be scripted and provide updated templates as requirements change• Report defects to the internal team and vendors for resolution• Perform root cause analysis around defects and resolve via configuration where possible• Gather requirements from the business as needed• Track the testing deliverables provided by the vendor against the requirements that have been provided to them to ensure all requirements have been received/accounted for

Peoria Heights, Illinois, Us

• Create standard guidelines for configuration within business systems• Implement changes to systems based on direction from the business and in accordance with established procedures and guidelines• Conduct configuration and setup testing of proprietary and vendor systems• Setup, test, and maintain product rates• Participate in technical research in support of continuing innovation within the organization.• Ensure that systems project technical requirements are properly integrated with existing processes and skill sets• Work with development team to plan a system flow from the ground up• Interact with development team to understand software limitations• Assist programmers during system development by providing use cases, flowcharts, or other information• Perform functional system testing• Ensure that quality is built into all phases of a technical project and continuous improvement is used to incorporate knowledge acquired from previous projects• Collaborate with the development team, application support, and testing groups to ensure technical compatibility and business satisfaction• Manage internal clients throughout the entire implementation life cycle, including project initiation, technical implementation, custom development, and business analysis for optimal results• Coordinate with and support the Product Owner and other project team members to identify and document business requirements• Acquire in-depth product knowledge of Pearl’s Enterprise Systems and their various modules, as well as developing an understanding of Pearl business processes and products• Coordinate user acceptance testing and write test cases• Create and maintain user product documentation and assist in associate training• Provide basic end-user support including issue assessment and resolution during and immediately following an implementation

Westchester, Illinois, Us

• Handled the emblematic gift/apparel planning for 40 larger, higher turn 4-year stores• Set budgets, forecasted sales• Planned and controlled receipts, markdown dollars, and margin• Controlled inventory levels, rebalanced inventory across locations, managed open to buy receipts, built customized assortments for each market, assisted in contract retention and maintained branding standards• Prepared weekly reporting and in-depth data analysis• Observed individual markets to seek opportunities for growth• Collaborated with multiple departments, vendors, and licensing to ensure maximum market penetration and revenue• Streamlined processes to improve efficiency and decrease workload • Used excel extensively to manipulate data for sales forecasts, inventory planning, budgets, and financial reporting. Regular usage of vlookups, pivot tables, advanced formulas, template building, some macro, etc.• Planned merchandise/inventory to support events and hot market championships• Responsible for $8.1 million

Westchester, Illinois, Us

• Additionally handled all aforementioned responsibilities for all Canada stores as well as the 160 2YR Northeast stores• Worked with international and Canadian vendors to secure product quantities and ensure timely delivery• Reviewed required items outside of the assortment to strengthen campus relationships for contract retention as well as provided insight to any assortment build feedback for sourcing• Created new workload reduction processes that doubled my planning workload efficiency, could populate promotional orders for the team, and could be used for non-peak build-ups/early deadlines• Responsible for $9.7 million

Westchester, Illinois, Us

• Handled the emblematic gift/apparel planning for 160 2YR Northeast locations in 11 states• Set budgets and forecasted sales • Planned and controlled receipts, markdown dollars, and margin• Controlled inventory levels, rebalanced inventory across locations, managed open to buy receipts, built customized assortments for each market, and assisted in contract retention• Prepared weekly reporting and in-depth data analysis• Observed individual markets to look for opportunities for growth• Collaborated with multiple departments, vendors, and licensing to ensure maximum market penetration and revenue• Streamlined processes to improve efficiency and decrease workload • Used excel extensively to manipulate data for sales forecasts, inventory planning, budgets, and financial reporting. Regular usage of vlookups, pivot tables, advanced formulas, template building, some macro, etc.• Responsible for $4.6 million

Us

• Created planograms, controlled product selection, launched off-shelf programs and test displays, and created promotions and markdown strategies to achieve budgeted financial goals.• Created import forecasts for overseas import bin purchases to support our promotional unit/margin driven impulse "gauntlets" that formed the register line during our rush "Back to School" periods• Explored/planned growth of the import program by substituting comparable replacements for some of our higher volume current planogram assortment items to increase department margin• Negotiated with vendors to decrease minimums and cost, increase margin, and increase vendor income. Reviewed vendor products and managed vendor relationships.• Created a new procedure to replace our autogen replenishment system and provide more accurate sales forecasts • Bridged the communication gap between corporate and stores and helped to streamline processes across multiple divisions • Monitored sales, margin, turnover, weeks of stock, and aged inventory• Wrote ad copy for products and improved product appearance/presence on the website• Wrote SQL code to pull reports from ad hoc tables for micro-strategies, promotions, sales performance, and other assorted analyses• Used WinPrism/PRISM software to review the business such as sales, units needed, setting margins, markdown/sale events, data for sales forecasts/trends, reviewing shipment arrival dates against set vendor ETAs/cancel dates• Used excel extensively to manipulate data for sales forecasts, inventory planning, budgets, financial reporting. Regular usage of vlookups, pivot tables, advanced formulas, template building, some macro, etc.• Responsible for $6.1 million

Us

• Bridged the communication gap between corporate and stores and helped to streamline processes across multiple divisions • Completed replenishment buys/forecasting for softlines and hardlines (except convenience/autogen) for off campus locations• Monitored sales, margin, turnover, weeks of stock, and aged inventory• Implemented guidelines and procedures for the Pilot Buying Program and monitored the Pilot store’s Open to Buy and general merchandise performance• Built store inventory for web platform transitions and improved product appearance/presence on the website• Wrote SQL code to pull reports from Datawarehouse ad hoc tables for micro-strategies, promotions, sales performance, and other assorted analyses• Used WinPrism/PRISM software to review the business such as sales, units needed, setting margins, markdown/sale events, data for sales forecasts/trends, reviewing shipment arrival dates against set vendor ETAs/cancel dates• Used excel extensively to manipulate data for sales forecasts, inventory planning, budgets, and financial reporting for $16.8 million. Regular usage of vlookups, pivot tables, advanced formulas, template building, some macro, etc.

Us

· Was promoted again to a larger store as Store Manager in Elmhurst, IL.· Handled employee hiring/retention/training (we had 4 “rush” periods with many brand-new temp employees per "rush" period), payroll/scheduling, delegation and supervision of a team of 7 employees, campus relations, support of contract negotiations/amendments for an out to bid contract, publisher rep relations, reporting financials, budget allocation/analysis, inventory (daily/bi-annual), loss prevention, daily and monthly accounting records, all accounts receivable, marketing, shipping/receiving, mass product order/returns, and book seminar events• Acted as the Store Manager at the Judson location (acting General Manager pending an "out to bid" contract - I was still employed as the Elmhurst Store Manager while also covering this location most of the time) for a few months in lieu of a manager - created electronic order schedules to fulfill program orders, supervised/audited annual inventory, worked with with the campus contact on program needs, handled textbook buying/planning, completed daily accounting procedures, and created employee schedules• Responsible for $1.5 million

Us

• Was promoted and transferred to Store Manager in Defiance, OH• Handled daily and monthly accounting, all textbook and some general merchandise ordering, student book buybacks, course adoptions, budget analysis and financials, inventory (daily/bi-annual), loss prevention, employee hiring/supervision/retention, payroll, accounts receivable, marketing, shipping, filing, book returns, customer service, and school faculty/staff relations• Responsible for 400K

Us

• Worked at an $8 million revenue off-campus bookstore in Normal, IL learning about the company systems, procedures, textbook buying/planning, and financial reports• Met with other local business to discuss promotions to promote sales and introduce advertising into other markets• Traveled to multiple other locations to assist during rush periods or run the store in the absence of a store manager

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Human Resources Management

Education record