Mindi C.

Buff City Soap — delightfully scented plant based soaps, handmade daily, in each of our local Soap Makeries. We're on a mission to create handmade products that are free of harsh ingredients and full of nourishing plant based goodness. Leading Merchandising, Marketing, R&D, Store Visual, Insights and Digital Teams.

Led team of 25 including VP/DMM & 12-(Sr)Buyers, 3 Assoc. Buyers & 10 Ast Buyers . Recruited to help to lead company turnaround to off-price roots. Progressive accountability from VP/DMM to SVP/GMM in 2 years. Turn metrics +70% faster, Markdown reduction (15%) leading to GP improvement due to shift to performance based markdowns. AUR Growth +40% through mix shift. Accountable for 50% of company sales. Develop & foster vendor brand relationships across +2000 partnerships Implementation of key Off-price fundamentals through-out merchant organization Managed continual change through Re-organization Filing & Exit, team furlough due to Covid-19, company change in control while continuing to develop, attract and mentor team to deliver financial results. Recruited and Retained Talent- Off-Price 2 VP-DMM's, 12- Buyers along with development of Ast Buyers and Associate Buyers progression.

Sunrise Innovations provides strategic insight, innovative customized business analysis and product development to retail and consumer product clients, permitting them to increase sales revenue, and increase operating margin. We assist with the development and deployment of four key components required for business success: effective business strategy, useful business analysis, the ability to execute their business plan in a timely manner and product development. A key practice differentiation is the breadth and depth of experience accumulated while working in virtually every department of home business units in two top 100 companies. Over 20 years of successful retail and relationship building expertise. In order for a retail or consumer products organization to prosper they need to have a clear sense of where they are going (the strategic component), visibility and feedback on their progress (the analytical component), the ability to execute their business plan smoothly (the operational performance component) and vision for newness and innovative products (development component) . Consistently we demonstrate the ability to deliver these to business units with these key business components and, as a truly accountable partner, “your success” is “our success”.

• Recruited back to the organization by CEO to lead company turnaround & all merchandising functions with full P&L responsibility • Led brand partnerships, strategy, planning and assortments for over 145 brands and 20,000 skus • Led strategic brand acquisition, sku rationalization & brand/category exit to balance customer demand to improve turn rates. Turn rate improvement of more than 20% in 12 months. Margin rate held flat with increased promotional/clearance activity due to business exits & increased competitive marketing • Led stores remodel initiative (1/3 of chain), managing all aspects of in store layouts, new fixtures and brand assortment plans, to realize +10% sales gain over non-remodeled locations • Led reorganization and centralization of merchandising operations to reduce headcount by 25%, leading/motivating 15 direct/indirect reports during turnaround • Fostered strong collaboration with cross-functional team members to develop and support key business strategies in an increasingly competitive marketplace

• Direct selling 6 national chain accounts representing 50% of national chains sales in professional segment • Exceeded monthly sales targets each month. Secured placements for full year enabling for division success

• Developed and expanded business model in new categories of business adding over $20M annual in sales • Recruited/developed top merchant talent to small market company from national retailers • P&L accountability for retail segment comprising of 76% of sales & 80% of profits while setting strategic vision for categories and direct reports

HomeGoods Buyer- Weekly/daily opportunistic purchasing of brands, fashion and trend right products as part of a merchandise team. International and domestic sourcing of products. Creative, entrepreneurial minded, with a strong comfort in taking measurable risks. Independently driven to make decisions with a curiosity for new ways to do business.

Held buying positions of increasing scale over tenure in hard and soft home with revenues up to $1.0B in annual sales with large assortment and product development experience. Brand relationships & process management with Martha Stewart Omni Media & Newell-Rubbermaid