Technical Skills 

MS Office Suite, expert in Excel, SAP, Business Intelligence (BI/BW), Microsoft Dynamics AX, SKYPAD, NPD Decision Key, MicroStrategy, NuOrder, along with demonstrable capability of utilizing various retailer systems for data consolidation & analysis.

Head of Wholesale Planning, North America | Ted Baker | Los Angeles, CA | 12/2018 - present

Ted Baker is a British luxury lifestyle brand with global retail and wholesale outlets.

Responsibilities

• Oversee US wholesale planning department for men’s and women’s apparel, accessories, and footwear across multiple trustees, including Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Dillards, Macys, Amazon, Zappos, Nordstrom Rack, Saks Off Fifth, and over 100 specialty online and brick & mortar retailers.
• Lead a team of 8 consisting of planning managers, senior & junior level planners and allocators.
• Drive standardization across divisions to support best practices, analyze KPIs to help maximize sales, profitability, and inventory turn.
• Develop and manage annual forecasts for the US wholesale business, providing strategic decisions and insights to executive leadership identifying sales, inventory and GM risks and opportunities.
• Manage two to five year rolling internal financial forecasts to benchmark forward looking account & category growth opportunities.
• Sit on a committee of core cross-functional team members throughout the global organization to standardize and streamline operational procedures and to help facilitate the implementation of a planning and allocation tool.

Accomplishments

• Developed a robust, high performing US planning team through coaching, training, and development.
• Improved forecasting accuracy by developing excel planning tools used in conjunction with BI reporting.
• Reduced margin support payout by better in season management of product with key accounts, taking a strategic buy, sell trade approach.
• Navigated through Covid challenges, including reducing inventory by revising future on order, worked with key off price partners to move through excess stock while still maintaining positive margins, took on additional responsibilities as our team was reduced to 13 from 30 as a cost savings measure, currently working to strategically rebuild and refocus our team as we move into a post Covid world.

Vice President of Planning | One Jeanswear Group (formerly Jones Apparel Group) | New York, NY | 05/2011 - 08/2018

One Jeanswear Group (formerly Jones Apparel Group) designs, markets, produces, and distributes a distinguished portfolio of branded and private label jeanswear brands throughout North America.

Responsibilities

• Oversaw OJG Planning department, which included 10 national brands and 15+ private label brands.
• Lead a high-performing team of senior level planners, created a culture of trust, accountability and responsibility.
• Responsible for all aspects of Replenishment and Merchandise Planning, sales forecasting, inventory placement, inventory management, WOS, size scale analysis by fit and distribution channel, fill rate and profitability.
• Managed two year rolling internal financial replenishment forecast for all branded and private label accounts, representing approximately 15% of total company forecast.
• Developed relationships with major retail chains; review weekly orders against weekly sales performance; monitor stock-out rates, door and size performance to recommend reorders to drive sales and maximize profitability.
• Collaborated with cross functional teams to improve business analytics, trend analysis and reporting.
• BRANDS: Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessica Simpson, Vintage America Blues, Bandolino, Nine West, William Rast and Ella Moss.
• PRIVATE LABEL: Walmart, Macy's, Belk, Bonton, Sears US & Canada and Kmart.
• DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS: Walmart, Macy's, Belk, Kohls, JCP, Dillard's, Lord & Taylor, Stage, Amazon, Costco, Sears and Kmart, all major off price retailers plus others.

Accomplishments

• Worked directly with the IT team to develop and enhance our current planning tools which included a user interface planning database, and SAP ERP system.
• Standardized weekly and monthly reporting by taking large data sets and distilling the information into actionable and understandable reports for cross-functional teams including; sales, design, production and executives.
• Developed and implemented comprehensive demand planning reporting tools to measure sales performance, inventory management, margin analysis by product category and productivity.
• Directly involved in various corporate committees such as; speed to market, transition for change, and system(s) implementation team.

Awards & Promotions

• Promoted to Vice President (09/2016)
• Promoted to Director from Manager(10/2014)
• Manager of the Year (2014)

Planning Manager | Jones Apparel Group, Nine West Handbag Division | New York, NY | 05/2009 – 05/2011

Jones Apparel Group, Inc., a fortune 500 company, is a designer, marketer and wholesaler of branded apparel, footwear and accessories. Annual Handbag division revenue of over $55 million.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for wholesale/ retail planning for our company owned stores, E-commerce site and major retail partners; Nordstrom, Macy’s, Belk, Dillards, and Bonton. Including account plans, door planning, class planning both top line and by door, analyzing selling, recommending re-orders and inventory forecasting.
• Created and developed rolling three-year sales, margin, and inventory plans for all major accounts.
• Partnered with Senior Account Executive in creating seasonal assortments for all accounts.

Accomplishments

• Created an excel database that included specific style information used in conjunction with the raw data obtained from the accounts. Database enabled the easy creation of various pivot tables to analyze the business, manage sales forecasts, markdowns, inventory management, margins and retail turn.
• Created selling templates to analyze style selling by group, color, sku, and door selling reports to determine appropriate sales and stock mix.
• Worked extensively with the Macy’s buying and planning team to effectively use the tools available in the newly created Macy’s Vendor Portal.

Director of Planning and Forecasting | Schifter + Partners | New York, NY | 08/2007 – 01/2009

Fashion handbag start-up wholesaler focused on producing and selling handbags to a variety of companies including high to mid-level department stores, specialty chain stores and independent retailers. Brands include L.A.M.B., Jill Stuart, Harajuku Lovers, and Kidrobot. Annual revenue of over $40 million.

Responsibilities

• Creating and building a new department to include; Retail, Demand and Merchandise Planning.
• Managed production placement process, gross margin optimization, sales analysis, and inventory forecasting.
• DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS: Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Saks, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Stage, Belk, Barney’s, Intermix, Kitson, Holt Renfrew (Canada).

Accomplishments

• Saved the company over half a million dollars over the course of one year by margin analysis and negotiation.
• Initiated the creation of new style numbers across all brands to make style and color selling analysis possible.
• Formalized all sales and budget reporting.
• Created new line-sheet formats that have multi-functional use, eliminating the need for several different worksheets.

Retail Planner | Camuto Group | New York, NY | 03/2006 – 08/2007

Wholesaler for BCBG & Jessica Simpson Handbags.  Products sold to national department store chains, specialty stores and to discount retailers. Annual revenue of over $35 million.

Responsibilities

• Retail planning processes including account plans, managing gross margins, managing markdowns, analyzing selling, and monitoring internal product margins for all styles.
• Analyzed internal selling on a monthly basis to determine over-solds, missed sales due to cancelations, factory shortages, and under ordering product.

Accomplishments

• Initiated the creation of all formal budget reports used to analyze performance based off LY, forecast and TY actual.
• Created formal sales tracking report used by sales department and upper management.
• Created seasonal plan template which included sales, receipts, markdowns, gross margin, turn and profitability.

Senior Merchandise Administrator & Report Specialist | Asprey & Garrard | New York, NY | 11/2003 – 03/2006

Asprey & Garrard is a United Kingdom-based designer, manufacturer and luxury retailer of men’s & women’s RTW, jewellery, silverware, home goods, leather goods, timepieces, polo equipment, fine and rare books, and bespoke pieces.

Responsibilities

• Managing daily inventory levels of product by store location, producing weekly selling reports, determining the appropriate sales mix for all product categories, and assisting in the yearly forecasting to determine open-to-buy.

Accomplishments

• Promoted from Logistic/Merchandise Coordinator within 6 months.
• Authored training manual for POS and back office SAP system.
• Identified a lack of formal reporting and developed a reporting system to include weekly and monthly selling.

Assistant Manager | Charles Jourdan | New York, NY | 09/2002 – 05/2003

Corporate Sales Representative | Montblanc | New York, NY & Store Supervisor (Costa Mesa, CA) | 09/1998 – 11/2001

New York University | Institute of Paralegal Studies | 09/2002 – 05/2003
Graduate Diploma in Paralegal Studies, ABA-approved

California State University Long Beach | 09/1994 – 12/1999 
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration