Playing dress-up at age 5, parleyed to Best Dressed, a degree in Textiles, and inspired my path for great goods, superb merchants, amazing food purveyors, visual wizardry and the BEST TALENT,  while being attuned to value and making the numbers match the mission.

Paris at 25?  Close to perfect. 

Macy’s New York was an adventure- buying home accessories in the Far East and Europe was amazing, while learning how to be as smart as our customers. Right place, Right time.  So lucky.

Merchandising retail real estate came next at The Rouse Company.  Leasing groundbreaking urban projects in Miami, New York, Portland, St. Louis, Atlanta, Seattle, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Phoenix and New Orleans, over a decade offered me a platform at the most creative company of its time.  Witnessing the launch of Banana Republic, The Sharper Image in bricks and sticks form, Abercrombie’s reconceived and enrolling entrepreneurs in Swing Shops and POP-Ups, while courting European names like H&M and Orrefors on their home turf, was like getting an MBA on the job.  Acting as liaison to the Design and Marketing divisions helped educate my design sense, and taught me how to think about print versus media, and pr versus advertising.

My retail revolution was launching RETAIL RESOURCE, INC. as an entrepreneur.  No paycheck, no net- for me a leap of faith.  And ALL the business, ALL the business has come from word of mouth.

Today I still love retail, and now ETAIL.  Finding Merchant talent that makes a town or a trip special, or a café that looks as good as it tastes is still a thrill.  Living in Paris and much later Rome, made me a citizen of the world.  The stacks of  IDEA notebooks, very full filing cabinets, and now my mac with 20,000 retail photos are part of my history, and my future.  Vogue, WWD, INstyle, Vogue Italia and Australia, the Wall St. Journal, the New York Times, the New Yorker and New York Magazine, Dwell, Wallpaper, Travel and Leisure, Outside, GQ, Interior Design, House Beautiful, Elle, Lucky, Metropolis, wired, Fast Company, Southern Living, Veranda, self, and bon appétit are all on my read all the time list. 

It’s been great- what I was meant to do.  It’s what has brought me here now…ready for What’s NEXT.