Marketing Management►Digital Marketing

Bachelor of Business Administration►Digital Marketing►Retail Management►Retail Strategies

►Member of the Clearly Executive team composed of cross-departmental leaders. ►Led the Category Management teams to build and implement successful pricing and promotional strategies to reach gross margin KPIs. ►Oversaw the Buying team in execution of category strategy on Frames, Lenses and Contact Lenses, including product selection, identifying product opportunities to fill gaps in the marketplace, as well as providing differentiated and profitable product offerings. ►Led the teams in managing all product life cycles from conception to discontinuation including building exit strategies with minimal impact to bottom line. ►Owned and managed the product P&L, ensuring all corporate objectives are met, these include: gross margin, product margin, product cost, and returns. ►Successfully led and managed all corporate negotiations for vendor contracts specifically related to marketing, coop, rebate and pricing program, ensuring the outcome of these contracts meet corporate objectives and local strategies.

► Led Product/Formula Innovation and Category Management/Demand Planning Teams.

► Member of the Saje Corporate Leadership Team composed of cross-departmental Senior Directors/Directors.►Hired and developed a team of PD Managers, Project Managers, Category Managers and Business Analysts. Demonstrated effective leadership including setting clear performance standards, delivering feedback and performance coaching.►Led the Product Management, Product Development and Ingredient teams to develop and launch 200 skus annually in Canada and US, while managing the portfolio (+/- 400 skus) to ensure high ROI and alignment with KPIs, COGS and margin targets.►Set and managed aggressive financial targets for fiscal year. Revised supply chain model of raw materials purchasing from various suppliers then in-house assembling to purchasing finished goods reducing risk and timelines. This new strategy produced cost savings of $4m to $5m within first year in addition to streamlining the RFQ process.►Developed vendor scorecards and dashboards, allowing suppliers to focus on what’s important to the organizational and departmental goals. Worked with suppliers and cross-functional teams to build buy-in and strategies on meeting and exceeding KPIs set in vendor scorecards. Led bi-annual supplier audits overseas to ensure quality and vendor scorecard compliance and to drive product and material innovation.►Enforced quality goals including higher supplier quality of materials in line with sustainability goals, installation procedure adherence, specification and tolerance compliance, and general conformance to industry best practices.►Drafted, negotiated and reviewed supplier agreements, including licensing, royalty terms, vendor agreements, and marketing partnerships and collaborations.►Product Lead for corporate wide implementation of ERP System.

► Identified opportunities for new product introductions keeping the line fresh, innovative & on brand.► Developed and managed discontinuation plans to increase shelf space for higher value items, maximize value per linear inch on shelves and reduce inventory and write-off costs.► Launched new core and seasonal products (150 skus annually) into the market by managing the product development process from analysis, sampling, packaging, artwork, distribution center collaboration to retail.► Aligned with retail teams to provide support by understanding the needs of individual consumers and consistently communicating the value proposition and benefits of the product lines.► Worked with suppliers to seek innovative product and packaging components that contribute to key performance indicators.► Developed necessary product knowledge tools (look books, holiday guides, etc.) for retail teams to educate consumer.

Brands: La Notte, Community

► Bought full year round ladies footwear collection for the Aldo Ladies US retail and E-Commerce divisions (392 stores), the largest revenue driving division in the Aldo Group.► Accountable for the open to buy budget and successfully increased sales within two seasons and increased inventory turnover within one season through strategic inventory management, designer collaborations, and offering commercially viable styles.► Successfully aligned delivery patterns with open to buy budget by analyzing seasonal and fashion trends, to ensure a buffer of 15% for in season trend injections and best seller repeat management.► Achieved a 3% final good cost reduction by negotiating costs pre season with suppliers, collaborating with import/export division to obtain lower duty rates, and led product development in obtaining low raw material costs through style amendments.► Increased margin within two seasons by improving retail strategy through price increases aligned with industry, competition and overall divisional strategy; division continued to experience sales growth with new retail strategy.► Led teams of 4-6 in visual presentation, marketing and merchandising departments to develop e-commerce strategies, in-store visual merchandising strategies and to marketing campaigns resulting in 5% increase in consumer conversion.► Accurately built upcoming season’s budget plan with planning department by forecasting sku count, blends to buy, receipt patterns, and retail strategy. Overall plan accuracy included 8% buffer for latest fashion trend buys.

► Developed and managed brand’s long term strategy and vision through creating advertising and promotional strategies, deciding price strategy and designing product packaging resulting in overall market share growth of $0.8 (skincare) in one year ► Successfully launched sun and skin care products into market by developing launch plans with traditional media, public relations, interactive web, and guerilla marketing to gain share from competitive products, and attract new consumers.► Led sun care labs with vision to develop innovative sun care prototypes that met consumers needs, filled gaps in product portfolio, leveraged the brand resulting in first to market innovations, continuous spray protection► Efficiently allocated marketing and trade budgets to brand programs that resulted in high return on investment and built brand awareness while respecting budgetary constraints.► Forecasted monthly sales and analyzed trade and marketing opportunities necessary to close the gap in monthly budget, resulted in achieving overall monthly budget each month. ► Analyzed and interpreted consumer research, focus group feedback, and usage and attitude studies to determine consumers needs to ensure alignment with product launch strategies, promotional activities, pricing and overall brand direction.► Accurately forecasted inventory units required through the analysis of historical unit consumption, trend analysis, and future consumption predictions resulting in achieved growth expectations, decreased inventory costs and no back order of stock units.

► Analyzed Market Research and AC Nielsen data in order to develop promotional, pricing, product placement and shelving strategies for brands to present to national retailers in order to increase market share and to meet internal distribution objectives of gaining incremental space on store shelves. ► Interpreted consumer research data and presented monthly recommendations to internal marketing team regarding product distribution and pricing to assist new product launch strategies.► Developed store design of skin care and sun care section at five retailers across Canada for 200 stores in order to differentiate categories from other personal care sections within the same store as well as amongst competitor retailers. ► Managed a team of three suppliers to build store design “concepts” by allocating responsibilities, managing budget, and providing feedback in order to ensure timely “concept” rollouts and meet deadlines for “concept” installation and testing.

► Developed customized promotional retail programs based on analysis of Point-of-Sales (POS) results of each store and collaborated with store managers to lead implementation of the programs at store level, resulting in increased visibility and sell thru of L’Oreal brands and achieving 108% of sales targets for 2007.► Successfully built high-trust client relationships with retailers in territory and presented recommendations around distribution strategies based on L’Oreal sales methodologies to managers at 100 stores on a monthly basis which resulted in closing distribution gaps and meeting 100% of L’Oreal’s distribution targets.► Responsible for sales results across all drug, mass, grocery accounts in Metro Vancouver

Personal Care, Home Care, Grocery Account Manager► Managed four independent grocery accounts through head office buyers by developing customized flyer strategies and pricing plans, setting distribution targets and hypothesizing potential competitive retailer strategies which resulted in reaching 110% of annual sales targets.► Developed and presented category management reviews to retail managers, based on analysis of AC Nielsen and Point of Sale (POS) data which allowed retailers to create specific product promotions for underdeveloped product categories.