Lydia Simon

Brought on as a consultant to increase sales through continuous process improvement and workflow efficiency. Utilize Lean Six Sigma methodology to implement collaborative ways of working that deliver higher performance aligned with key business needs.

Rehired to lead a team of five direct reports to drive high-volume revenue, generating $1.2B annually. Fully accountable for product margins, P&L, and inventory turns and optimization. Notable accomplishments: • Reduced inventory levels by 24% YOY, while increasing inventory turns. • Created a protocol for planning based on SKU, performance, trends, and margins. • Reduced costs through inventory optimization and increased inventory turns resulting in 9% increase to the bottom line. • Developed ERP (SAP and ACS) systems enhancements and authored Inventory Management Policy & Procedures Guide.

Solely built a successful apparel and consumer goods liquidation company. Focused on B2B and B2C demand and production planning and P&L management. Notable accomplishments: • Grew from zero to over a $1.0m in revenue with a team of 5 direct reports. • Collaborated with web designer on architecture to create a user-friendly site, both for backend updates and maintenance and for customer facing features such as browsing and checkout. • Developed inventory and financial strategies to execute plans to efficiently and effectively turn inventory and identify risks and opportunities to increase sales.

Responsible for global material purchasing, budgets, and financials. Led and delivered best practices within the purchasing process and renegotiated favorable supplier agreements while overseeing a team of 10 direct reports. Notable accomplishments: • Developed strategies and implemented plans to smoothly and efficiently create a production workflow. • Created partnerships with design, procurement, and production to optimize time-to-market and identify profitable SKUs. • Led global vendor relations and price negotiations, analyzed costing and managed P&L, margins and budgets.

Promoted to VP and accountable for successful day-to-day operations of a team of 20 direct reports. Led all financial forecasting and issue resolution for Sales & Ops Planning, Pre-Production, Customer Service, and Distribution departments. Notable accomplishments: • Advocated a move from AIMS to a new manufacturing and ERP software to enhance functionality. • Led implementation of GARPAC which included configuration, and user training and decreased operating costs by 10% and increased overall production efficiency.

Responsible for building a high functioning Demand Planning team of 15 direct reports from the ground up. Autonomy to create a Demand Plan that yielded increased net income through improved processes and forecasting.