Nathan Klinker Email & Phone Number

Wheaton, Illinois

Wheaton, Illinois

Greater Chicago Area

• Manage Private Label & Rack categories with P&L responsibilities for Kmart and Kmart.com.
• Lead buying and inventory teams to effectively achieve sales and profit goals while executing corporate strategies.
• Develop and expand vendor base relationships, both import and domestic, to cultivate value proposition driven assortments while striving for best in class product quality.
• Monitor inventory lead times and import MOQ’s to support sales and maximize seasonal profitability.

Greater Chicago Area

• Support Sr. Buyer in managing day to day operations for 13 Team/Club categories; wherein, I autonomously manage Football, Soccer, Baseball, and the Athletic Accessories categories.
• Analyze assortments, improve inventory processes, and leverage negotiation skills to drive YoY comp store growth across designated categories and efficiently manage inventory ownership KPI's.
• Review assortment decisions with DMM & VP of Merchandising to justify sales/margin analysis; wherein, I collaborate with Inventory, Space Planning, and Store Operations to maximize assortment profitability.
• Build sales forecasts based on various trends, inventory/in-stock positions, store counts, assortment mix, and store/item combinations by region/climate.
• Maintain and build relationships with national vendor partners; including Wilson, Rawlings, Spalding, Easton, Louisville Slugger, Franklin Sports, TaylorMade, and Bridgestone.
• Leverage MarketTrack and other industry data tools to monitor consumer trends and behaviors; which are utilized to capture evolving market opportunities in the Club/Team Sports arenas.

• Managed $1M annual signing budget to support in-store marketing initiatives - while overseeing program expenses, sourcing/negotiating signing costs, and coordinating the distribution process.
• Reported to Director of Marketing and CMO during regular touch base meetings regarding timelines, budget constraints, and general project updates.
• Collaborated with merchants and merchandise managers to plan and execute offset signing initiatives.

• Leveraged a detail-oriented work ethic to organize, track, and maintain the integrity of a database containing over 3,000 vendors, 10,000 brands, and $8M of audit revenue annually.
• Developed relationships through strategic communications with buyers and vendors to collect, manage, update and improve the information within the Global Compliance database.
• Educated vendors regarding corporate policies and procedures and SHC Program requirements pertaining to local labor laws on such issues as child labor, wages, working hours, health and safety, and factory security.

• Built business cases and provided analysis for sustainability projects – the resulting information was included in the application that earned Sears the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award for the 2nd consecutive.
• Negotiated funding allocation, signage requirements, and 3rd party agreements as a member of the Green Leadership Team. Herein, I collaborated with our Lighting vendors and merchants to formulate a rebate markdown.
• Qualified over 150 stores for the ENERGY STAR label by collaborating with the US EPA to identify, formulate, and communicate metrics to eligible stores.
• Maintained awareness of industry trends, governmental regulations, and best practices as it relates to environmental sustainability. Provide reports on trends, improvements and regulations in order to drive better.

• Analyzed client profiles with regard to institutional products and services to educate clients and generate sales opportunities and leads for investment and real estate professionals.
• Developed a relationship strategy based upon strict honesty principles – the results yielded strong client loyalty, trust, and lowered complaint issues of products and services.
• Formulated creative sales techniques to motivate clients and team members to increase customer acquisition, retention, satisfaction, and institutional integrity.

• Utilized OneSource, MarketLine, and other academic databases to analyze, collect, and organize competitor market information in the Aqueous Solutions Testing industry.
• Analyzed competitor trends regarding product development/offerings, M&A, and production contracts to identify competitor trajectory, industry mobility, and market/product positioning.
• Consulted with Senior Directors to refine and refocus our market research strategies to uncover and identify target markets. This included creating data illustrations regarding our product positioning across industry.

• Utilized Morningstar database to create client portfolios for use in Advisor/Client interactions – designed to market corporate professionalism and depict accurate client investment status.
• Assisted with marketing efforts by contacting potential clients regarding specified financial products and services resulting in potential acquisition targets for Waddell & Reed Advisors.
• Gained experience with the Financial Advisor Pre-Certification stages - whereby acquiring knowledge on Financial Advising, Management, Development, Products, and Services.

• Analyzed opportunity for fiber composite materials in the Navy marine vessel market for a Fortune 500 company.
• Collaborated with a team of 6 consultants to development a new marketing plan and market penetration strategy for the client to achieve growth targets through acquisition.
• Performed a comprehensive M&A analysis of the marine vessel industry to identify direct competitor market share, acquired capabilities, and future trend progression.

• Calculated and initiated daily wire fund transfers totaling over $100 million to Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and internal accounts through secure transaction protocols.
• Settled approximately $150 million in mutual fund trades, purchases, redemptions, and CD’s.
• Reconciled daily balance sheet activities and transactions to maintain bookkeeping integrity.

• Developed ad hoc reports for sales and software downloads, allowing divisions to view their direct contributions to the University – both financially and physically.
• Assisted with on-demand software services: software duplication, order fulfillment via web interface, and customer distribution to meet consumer specification and promote customer satisfaction.
• Provided support for the development of marketing strategies through the analysis of student demographics - resulting in a substantial increase in campus-wide customer utilization.

Mba, Marketing And General Management

Activities and Societies: Phi Theta Kappa Honorary Society Illinois Business Consulting, PPG Industries Participant, Dale P. Jones Ethics.

Bachelors Of Sciences, Economics