Global Chief Retail Officer

London, U.K. ■ January 2007 – March 2009

Annual Sales: $350M ■ Region: Global

Channels: 350 Direct Stores + 700 Franchise Stores, Full Price & Factory Outlet

Responsibilities and Key Accomplishments

Created and implemented integrated regional strategies that delivered the “vision for Samsonite retail” in the worldwide marketplace that drove top-line sales increases, gross margin improvements, cost reductions, and EBITDA growth.

Channel Management and Optimization

• Held full P&L global accountability for retail and commercial activities across all distribution channels (full-price retail, factory outlets, store concessions, and airport duty-free) in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

• Managed all strategic and operational functions for the direct-to-consumer business, including retail development, field and store operations, planning, buying & merchandising, marketing, visual merchandising, and human resources.

• Operated within a matrix structure in 40 countries while overseeing the global business restructuring that involved turning five independent business units into a strategically aligned, results-oriented team.

International Market Development

• Successfully managed the international market expansion initiative by rolling out and optimizing the full-price and factory outlet retail concepts, thus enabling the company to achieve financial goals and increase global presence.

• Analyzed international markets, determined entry strategies by country, identified local ownership models, and created the organizational structure to provide a platform for profitable retail growth.

• Developed new branded store concepts for Samsonite Black Label and Samsonite Classic. Over 150 directly operated and franchise points-of-sale locations opened, including New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Moscow, and Istanbul.

• Managed store opening processes, including location search/selection, lease negotiation, store design, build-out, staff recruitment, training, operational set-up, local marketing activities, and visual merchandising.

Operational Best Practice

• Revamped multiple business processes and implemented performance benchmarking following best practices to ensure stores were operated efficiently, consistently, and profitably.

• Dramatically improved the consumer experience and store environment by introducing a new consumer-centric service model, KPI-based incentive schemes, enhanced visual merchandising standards, improved product assortments, and conversion-focused operational activities.