Jennifer Mulligan, MBA

Responsible for executing the overall short and long-term strategy for assigned category/ categories. This includes, creating and maintaining vendor relationships, marketing products, developing product line strategies and reporting financial results. Make buying decisions for the assigned category and negotiates terms with suppliers to drive item selection and pricing. MAJOR TASKS, RESPONSIBILITIES AND KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES -Supplier Relationship Management: Influence the supplier management strategy to support overall department strategy and works to improve all aspect of supplier relationship. -Financial Planning & Management: Implement the financial strategy/cost structure for a category and set pricing. -Merchandising Execution: Develop merchandising strategy to understand key business drivers (e.g. historical performance, industry/ competitive landscape, consumer segmentation). -Assortment Selection: Execute the business review of category/ categories on a regular basis; determining changes to product mix to better optimize assortment and drive innovation.

Responsible for managing a product line or group of product lines for sales, margin and supply chain including turns. This includes assortment planning, merchandise and vendor selection, negotiation, financial planning, inventory impact implications, advertising plans, merchandise presentation, distribution, vendor relations and administration for assigned lines. With guidance from DMM, develop and execute strategies for driving sales and margin, and competitive differentiation.

Responsible for managing a product line or group of product lines for sales, margin and supply chain including turns. This includes assortment planning, merchandise and vendor selection, negotiation, financial planning, inventory impact implications, advertising plans, merchandise presentation, distribution, vendor relations and administration for assigned lines. With guidance from DMM, develop and execute strategies for driving sales and margin, and competitive differentiation.

Manage the development and implementation of aspects of Staples’ relationship with Microsoft related to driving incremental sales. Interface with key functional areas within Staples, including merchandising, marketing, inventory/planning, sales and promotions, visual merchandising, and store operations, to drive initiatives designed to boost sales. -Partner with Staples and Microsoft executives to understand and evaluate opportunities for growth. -Manage a pipeline of projects and work internally to ensure all deliverables are being met. -Execute campaigns and/or implement programs to drive unit sales. -Manage key product initiatives, pull together financials, details on marketing campaigns, baseline and incremental lift forecast, circular/in-store/online collateral needs, and execute programs. -Develop project plans, bring together key stakeholders for planning sessions, develop content for in-store, online, and sales rep campaigns, and ensure marketing, merchandising, promotional, and training deadlines are met for new product launches. -Own training materials, manage development and execution of in-store tools (pin, coaching guide), ensure compliance of program and plan next iterations. -Interface with other groups internally on behalf of Microsoft. -Report on results both internally at Staples and externally to strategic partners.

Create and maintain period and yearly financial plans for their assigned categories and effectively partner with Merchants and Inventory Management on identifying and implementing strategies to achieve or exceed them. Also responsible for item planning and analysis to ensure merchandising and inventory plans are synchronized to achieve or exceed sales, inventory turns, margin and service level objectives. -Utilize Planning tools to accurately forecast both period and year sales, margin, inventory and turn. Ensure plans support objectives. -Identify the impact future promotional and ad plans to margin, and work with Product Manager to minimize risk and meet targeted goals. -Introduce opportunities to increase sales, margin and turn to meet or exceed budget. -Utilize Planning tools to accurately forecast key items to maximize sales, margin service level and turn. -Utilize OTB process to maintain budgeted inventory, working with IA to synchronize purchasing plans. -Communicate all plans to IA’s, Vendors, Product Managers (multi-channel where applicable) and collaborate with team to ensure plans can be supported. -Forecast sales, margin and inventory for Ads and Promotions to maximize sales and service levels while minimizing residuals. -Develop and maintain positive and effective relations with vendors, operate as key contact for inventory team.

Support the Staples.com Merchandising organization in managing product line or group of product lines for sales, margin, and supply chain. This involves research, ad hoc financial planning and analysis, promo planning, print vehicle merchandising, online merchandising, SKU set-up/maintenance. -Proactively manage SKU/vendor set-up and maintenance process. -Communicate new information and forecasts to supply chain. -Conduct market research, gather industry data, track trends, themes, and competitive shopping to assist with item selection. -Create and analyze ad hoc reports and financial data as needed. -Optimize online presentations & consistency, search results,online tools for best customer experience. -Communicate with call centers & inside sales reps relating to product inquiries, price match requests, and catalog or web errors. -Coordinate with vendors for information on new products, samples, pricing, content, images and special promotions.

-Prepare design/process documentation on production applications for Business Systems team, consisting of application summary sheet, application detailed design document, and entry into production repository. -Produce additional documents as needed to meet goal of capturing design/process that defines production application. In preparing design/process documentation role will gather information, enter the information into templates for capturing information, offer suggestions on ways to modify templates, and present completed documentation to manager on a weekly basis. -Efficiently and effectively interact with developers to gain understanding of production applications as needed. -Navigate production applications, that may be written in (but not limited to) MS Access, MS Excel, and Visual Basic to gain knowledge about process and design of application. -Engage business customers as needed to understand application use, and relevant information that needs to be captured in documentation.

Have won the following awards: -Scholarship for International Students Half scholarship for tuition and student residence fees Criteria: Awarded to a limited number of international students graduating -IS4238 Scholarship Criteria: Awards to students who participate in the IS4238 internship course and receive an A grade or higher

I was selected to attend the City University of Hong Kong's official Student Exchange Program from January-April 2011. In this extremely competitive program I was selected from a group of hundreds to study abroad for a semester at one of Canada's premier universities: The University of Waterloo.