Kathleen Kulenych Email and Phone Number
As a Strategic Merchant Executive, my extensive background encompasses driving successful merchandising strategies across Apparel, Accessories, and Fine Jewelry within Retail and Ecommerce domains. Recognized for achieving substantial sales growth and margin improvements as I led high-performing teams in dynamic environments. I am adept in financial planning, vendor negotiations, and leveraging market insights to craft compelling assortments to elevate brand desirability and meet sales objectives. My ability to foster cross-functional collaborations ensures an unparalleled customer experience.CATAPULTING GROWTH THROUGH STRATEGYMERCHANDISING✦ PRODUCT STRATEGY - Formulated a comprehensive seasonal growth strategy for Victoria’s Secret, optimizing line plans and retail architecture to drive growth through core products, whitespace opportunities, and SKU productivity.✦ SALES GROWTH - Achieved a +10% YoY sales and margin growth in FY 2022 for Blue Nile, with a continued +4% YTD growth in FY 2023 against financial targets.✦ OMNI-CHANNEL STRATEGY - Propelled omni-channel sales growth through improvements in online experiences, whitespace opportunities, and customer engagement strategies aligned with 5-year and 10-year plans that contributed to Victoria Secret’s long-term strategic vision. ✦ PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT - Pioneered the RTW seasonal core program for Tory Burch, contributing 37-40% of seasonal sales, achieving a gross margin +5% higher than the rest of the collection.ECOMMERCE STRATEGIES ✦ eCOMMERCE - Executed merchandise Ecommerce strategies for Blue Nile ensuring top-notch customer experiences, digital merchandising, optimizing the customer journey for enhanced traffic and engagement. ✦ DIGITAL STRATEGY - Owned Blue Nile landing page strategies, website updates, seasonal content, and marketing initiatives aligned with merchandising and financial plans.✦ GROWTH STRATEGY - Spearheaded focused digital strategy for Dressbarn, achieving a remarkable +60% comp STD Fall 18, expanding Plus-size assortment online, enhancing customer experience, and boosting conversion. START-UP LEADERSHIP✦ REVENUE GROWTH - Steered comprehensive spectrum of financials, P&L, and line planning process. Orchestrated 500 vendor partnerships, retail architecture, and calendar activities for Cadeaux, a dynamic start-up DTC company.EARLY CAREER PROFILEClub 21, New York, NY | 10 yearsDKNY Jeans International, New York, NY Senior Vice President, Global Merchandising, Design, and Product Development Armani Exchange, New York, NY Vice President – Merchandising
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Senior Director Omni-Channel MerchandisingTilebarNew York, Ny, Us
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Director Of MerchandisingBlue Nile 2021 - PresentNew York, Ny, UsLed comprehensive Merchandising, Product Development, Vendor Management Operations, Marketing, Web Merchandising of Fine Jewelry for an Ecommerce company + Showrooms for total volume of $610M.✦ ACQUISITION INTEGRATION - Spearheaded the Blue Nile Merchandising integration project with James Allen/R2Net post-Signet acquisition, aligning priorities with company financial plans.✦ PRODUCT ASSORTMENT PLANNING - Own total assortment development from concept, line planning, product development, quality control, forecasting, and inventory management.✦ SHOWROOM STRATEGY - Created localized, curated assortments for Showrooms based on volume, square footage, and customer profile.✦ STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS - Managed partnerships with vendor partners and Designers, ensuring alignment with customer experience goals to achieve sales and margin targets.✦ P&L MANAGEMENT - Led comprehensive financial planning and inventory management, implementing pricing strategies focused on sales, margin optimization, and competitive benchmarking.✦ PROFITABILITY - Drove vendor negotiations ensuring profitability through markdown allowances, RTVs, and consignment inventory. -
Head Of Merchandising & Buying, DtcShopcadeaux 2019 - 2021West Bloomfield Township, Mi, UsDirected multi-category, multi-brand, curated lifestyle collections encompassing Women’s, Men’s, Kids, Beauty, Wellness, Tech, Home, and Food for both Consumer and Corporate Gifting channels.✦ PRODUCT STRATEGY - Drove all aspects of line planning, buys, costing, and inventory management, aligning assortments with strategic intent and emerging trends, while identifying whitespace opportunities, achieving revenue and profit targets.✦ COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE - Sourced, curated, and procured themed collections in alignment with strategic objectives, market trends, and whitespace opportunities, ensuring a compelling product mix.✦ INVENTORY MANAGEMENT - Conducted detailed inventory analysis based on sales targets and market trends, optimizing stock levels to meet demand while capitalizing on trends.✦ VALUE PROPOSITION - Strategized marketing initiatives and product launches to ensure a coherent value proposition, leveraging customer insights and market research in close collaboration with the Marketing team.✦ WEBSITE MANAGEMENT - Oversaw the Shopify Plus hosted online store, collaborating on-site experience enhancement and database development with the web development team and UX partners. -
Retail ConsultantAutumn Adeigbo 2018 - 2019Los Angeles, Ca, UsLed financial planning, merchandising strategies, and product development for DTC start-up brands, ensuring streamlined operations and successful market launches.✦ PRODUCT LAUNCH - Successfully managed the strategic launch of Autumn Adeigbo on Rent The Runway, orchestrating a seamless introduction into the market, leveraging strategic partnerships, and aligning with the brand's vision.✦ MENTORSHIP - Advised (IN) LARKIN®, on business plan development, sourcing, product development, and costing for athglamour® women's contemporary designer brand based in California. (The goal is for athglamour® to be synonymous with (INLARKIN) in the way that denim is with Levi’s, sneakers with Nike, and yoga wear with lululemon.) -
Director, Omni-Channel MerchandisingAscena Retail Group, Inc. 2016 - 2018Mahwah, Nj, UsChosen to direct all strategic initiatives to enhance sales and gross margin for 720 stores and Ecommerce division, managing a team of 11 Merchants across 3 Lifestyle Brands and 3 size ranges, driving an annual volume of $300M.✦ REVENUE GROWTH - Achieved Fall 18 YTD results with a +5.3% increase in sales, generating a +$3.1M margin growth, and optimizing inventory investment by -5.2% against the plan.✦ STORE LOCALIZATION STRATEGIES - Executed store localization strategies through tiering by location, volume grade, and climate zones, optimizing product assortments to cater to diverse customer needs.✦ OPEN TO BUY PROCESS - Oversaw Buy Review processes ensuring alignment with financial targets, merchandising strategies, assortment plans, and company goals.✦ PRODUCT STRATEGY - Drove product assortment aligned with key strategies, price architecture, brand positioning, and value proposition. ✦ PROFIT STRATEGY - Ensured coherence with overall objectives on financial planning, OTB’s, inventory management, and markdown optimizations in collaboration with the Planning Team.✦ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE - Partnered closely with the Marketing team, aligning customer communication strategies through Ecommerce site experiences, email campaigns, direct mail, and in-store visuals to enhance customer engagement. -
Avp Merchandising At Victoria'S Secret DirectVictoria'S Secret Direct Brand Management, Llc 2013 - 2015Recruited to bring a new perspective to Swimwear to drive sales, demand, and margin strategies within the Ecommerce division, managing a total volume of $265M annually while leading a team of 7 Merchants.✦ WEBSITE MERCHANDISING - Oversaw website merchandising initiatives, optimizing site experience, homepage/product listing updates, catalog page sequencing, and email content for improved traffic, conversion rates, and meeting sales targets.✦ ASSORTMENT PLANNING - Streamlined assortments for greater cohesiveness and productivity, reducing SKU count by -60% while achieving a +2% comp sales growth.✦ PROFIT STRATEGY - Maximized volume and margin opportunities tied to strategic initiatives, ensuring optimal inventory levels to drive sales by managing monthly OTB’s and reacting dynamically in-season to trend opportunities ✦ MOBILE EXPERIENCE - Developed mobile-first site experiences with the UX team, enhancing user engagement and platform accessibility.✦ PRINT MEDIA - Led the strategic direction of printed media, notably Swim-only catalogs. Drove assortment, customer messaging, and creative strategies to support brand initiatives. -
Vice President – Global Merchandising & Product Development, RtwTory Burch 2010 - 2013New York, Ny, UsRecruited to lead initiative to launch Global Merchandising and Product Development for RTW across Retail, Ecommerce, US Wholesale, and Asia/UK/Europe International Wholesale. Managed team of 6 Merchants and 6 Product Developers with oversight of an annual volume of $200M.✦ G0-TO-MARKET STRATEGY - Drove strategic go-to-market plans for global collection, achieving a gross margin +5% increase each season. ✦ TEAM DEVELOPMENT - Established Merchandising and Product Development teams, refining processes for the RTW division during the late-stage start-up phase, optimizing operations to meet evolving demands.✦ GLOBAL MERCHANDISING - Managed all global RTW buying, partnering with Finance and Corporate Planning to align plans with retail and wholesale channel financial strategies.✦ OUTLET MERCHANDISING - Oversaw the buying and development of specialized products for Tory Burch outlet stores, delivering high-margin targets and sales goals.✦ PRODUCTION OVERSIGHT - Managed all raw material projections, ensuring timely deliveries for designs on fast-track development timelines, ensuring successful execution.✦ NEW CATEGORY LAUNCH - Successfully developed and launched Tory Burch Swimwear for Retail and Wholesale channels, contributing to brand expansion and diversification.✦ DESIGN COLLABORATION - Partnered closely with Tory Burch and the Design team in developing seasonal collections, overseeing various aspects from planning to final production.✦ SALES TEAM TRAINING - Conducted comprehensive training for wholesale sales teams on collection details before market releases, ensuring cohesive brand representation. -
Senior Vice President, Merchandising, Design, And Product DevelopmentClub 21 Singapore (Part Of The Como Group) 2006 - 2009Singapore, Singapore, SgSelected by CEO to oversee start up of New York office overseeing Design, Merchandising, Production/Product Development, Technical Design, HR, and IT totally 44 employees. ✦ Hired and trained team that launched the DKNY JEANS International collection that shipped to 37 countries within 9 months of design inception.✦ Established and maintained budget for entire office inclusive of all salaries, expenses, and overhead.✦ Partnered with sales offices in London, HK, and Singapore on positioning, branding opportunities, and marketing objectives to re-establish DKNY JEANS as a brand in Europe and Asia.✦ Developed and owned time and action calendar for development and production to be in line with European and Asian market week dates and in-store dates.✦ Drove the conceptualization of the line and brand vision through line plans, product line strategies, assortment, and allocations. Responsible for receiving final approval on the collection from licensor, DKI. ✦ Collaborated with buyers based in London and Hong Kong to ensure that all market needs were met.✦ Oversaw set up and enhancement of IT system for PO management and wholesale ordering.✦ Set strategic plans to balance production between Hong Kong, China, Thailand, India, Peru, Portugal, and Turkey.✦ Communicated daily with overseas offices to manage the development and production cycles.✦ Worked directly with agents/factories on establishing fits/blocks for U.S., European, and Asian markets.✦ Executed on-time approval processes and production deliveries by ensuring adherence to production time and action calendar.✦ Negotiated costs to ensure that overall target markup was met.✦ Directed salesman sample buys for the showrooms in London and Hong Kong, as well as European distributors’ showrooms. ✦ Traveled to London to present the collection to the UK sales team and European distributors to educate teams online prior to line opening. -
Vice President Of MerchandisingGiorgio Armani 1999 - 2006Milano, Mi, ItDrove 65% of total company volume, driving sales, gross margin and profitability. Managed a team of 10 Merchants. Grew sales volume increasing on average +10% per year from 2002-2006.✦ Collaborated with Planning on seasonal financial plans by division and store allocation Oversaw monthly and seasonal OTB and markdown strategy.✦ Developed core businesses to drive sales and gross margin resulting in an 11% sales increase in core product.✦ Re-evaluated content of collection to increase overall percentage of the Women’s business from 38% to 43% of total company volume. ✦ Presented the collection to Mr. Armani and the GA team, in conjunction with Design Directors, for approval of content and fit of the collection.✦ Reduced size of the collection to maximize units bought by sku, to capitalize on size selling and improve store presentations.✦ Partnered with Vice President of Visual on monthly floor sets to ensure proper display of product and to capitalize on sales.✦ Traveled to overseas factories to review production and factory opportunities. ✦ Shopped domestically and internationally for trends, fabrications, and silhouettes to ensure product met business trends and strategies. ✦ Presented the collection to international buyers, and ensured that the collection met the business needs of each market.✦Negotiated Jewelry as a new business opportunity to licensing team in Milan, which enabled this product category to be added to the assortment as white space opportunity.
Kathleen Kulenych Education Details
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University Of Connecticut School Of BusinessFinance -
Institute For Integrative NutritionGeneral
Frequently Asked Questions about Kathleen Kulenych
What company does Kathleen Kulenych work for?
Kathleen Kulenych works for Tilebar
What is Kathleen Kulenych's role at the current company?
Kathleen Kulenych's current role is Senior Director Omni-Channel Merchandising.
What schools did Kathleen Kulenych attend?
Kathleen Kulenych attended University Of Connecticut School Of Business, Institute For Integrative Nutrition.
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