Our Team

Steve works on complex issues in business transformation, strategy development, organizational reengineering, and customer experience architecture. He serves as an advisor to CEO’s, Boards, and senior corporate executives. He has served in senior management roles across world class omni-channel retail and brand organizations, such as American Express, Bloomingdale’s, and Redcats, and worked across multiple consumer and B to B categories and industries. He previously served as President of The Grayson Company, a global consulting practice serving retailers, brands, manufacturers, service companies and investors. Prior, Steve was a Partner in a leading business and brand development firm in New York. He has served as Division President of Redcats (then Brylane), a $1.6 billion direct to consumer of PPR, Paris (now Kering). He has also held leadership roles with Hanover Direct, Le Gourmet Chef, and ABC Home. He began his career at Allied Stores (now Macy’s) where he ultimately served as SVP / GMM of Home and Design.

Patti is a successful retail professional with over 30 years of experience in e-commerce, omnichannel, and specialty store
merchandising and management. Her expertise includes digital merchandising and marketing, product vision and brand
Building, as well as business and financial strategies. Her category expertise includes home goods, beauty and fragrance, and women’s accessories.

Patti founded Threaded Home, an e-commerce home textiles brand with a foundation in sustainable production.

Previously, Patti, held many leadership roles at Macy’s including SVP GMM of Macy’s.com home store, SVP of private label home textiles, as well as senior roles at the Limited Inc and in the Duty-Free Industry.

Andrew is regarded as a leading thought leaders and strategist within the luxury retail space. His viewpoints on the DTC luxury world have been published worldwide.

Most recently, he served as President of True Facet, a Venture Capital funded e-commerce platform and as an Operating Partner for a Private Equity firm focused on luxury watch and jewelry brand acquisitions. Andrew was also the Founder and CEO of Second Time Partners LLC, a Digital Marketing and Consulting Agency.

He has raised Venture Capital funding for DTC Digital Start-ups as well as serving as Board Advisor for multiple DTC platforms. He spent 21 years as EVP of Marketing at Tourneau, the world’s largest retailer of luxury watches, where he was instrumental in the company’s global expansion and category dominance. He later led Tourneau to a successful exit.

Elissa is an award-winning business leader and a leading expert in fashion entrepreneurship and emerging fashion markets with over twenty years of corporate, entrepreneurial and non-profit experience. She has launched a successful accessories brand, as well as the world renowned, non-profit, Philadelphia Fashion Incubator (PFI).  At PFI she has worked with over 50 founder and emerging brands, serving as a global model for fashion incubation.  
As an advisor to established brands, government and industry trade organizations and emerging talent and businesses around the world, she helps accelerate go- to-market strategies for international brands interested in entering the U.S. market. She is a frequent speaker around the world on the business of fashion and has worked with the US State Dept. on developing global trade programs in the fashion sector. Elissa is a graduate of UMASS Amherst and Paris Fashion Institute.

Peter Dammann has spent 25 years in marketing, the majority in e-Commerce.  After receiving a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Peter spent five years in marketing consumer packaged goods at Colgate-Palmolive.  Toothpaste and air freshener gave way to a career on the web as Peter spent the next 15 years in senior roles with various pure-play and multi-channel retailers, including helping Redcats USA to launch and grow its online channel to $500 million and J.Jill to double its e-Commerce revenue.
As the founder of Redview Digital, Peter now works directly with clients to help them build and grow their digital capabilities and drive meaningful results in customer acquisition, retention and revenue.

Jim is one of the most successful leaders in the development of disruptive sponsorships and promotions.

His practice specializes in world class sponsorships and promotions on a national, regional and local basis with distinctive entertainment properties in theatre, music, film, family and venues. Each of these partnerships are truly customized to leverage client brand positioning and sales objectives, while incorporating the unique assets of the client property.

He is a seasoned marketing executive with extensive prior experience in the financial services, packaged goods and beverage alcohol industries at American Express, General Foods and The Seagram Wine Company respectively.

Jim is a graduate of Duke University and earned his MBA at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Rabia is a leading retail consultant and sustainability strategist. As a results driven leader with an inherent entrepreneurial spirit, Rabia has led positive business transformation for a diverse range of companies from founder led early stage, to high growth and turnaround businesses.

She has proven success in the execution of growth and operational strategies while re-engineering supply chains for multi-million-dollar businesses. She has held executive leadership roles in Merchandising, Planning, Design and Production for multiple retailers including Fashion to Figure, Cache and White House | Black Market.

Rabia is also the founder of bgood collective, a sustainability agency working with small and mid-size retailers to develop and launch sustainability transformation.

Stuart has over 30 years of management experience in Omni Channel retail businesses. As the SVP of Retail Planning and Operations at Steve Madden, he led Operations, Real Estate, Budgeting and Reporting in addition to Merchandise Planning and Allocation. He was instrumental in upgrading their POS, Planning and ERP systems.

Prior, he was EVP Merchandise Planning, Allocation and Manufacturing at New York & Company where he accelerated the product life cycle of the $1.0 B vertical retailer. He also led the Finance and Operations teams for the 800 store Lerner chain where he led the Finance and Operations teams.  

Stuart is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mark has been an industry leader in the direct to consumer for more than 25+ years. Most recently, Mark was President of E-Commerce at Steve Madden. He has also led the direct-to-consumer marketing initiatives for world class brands and marketers that include Brooks Brothers, Full Beauty Brands (formerly Brylane/Redcats), Warnaco and Amerimark. He is highly analytical and creative expert at driving growth through customer acquisition and retention programs; he has been the architect of multiple loyalty and private label credit card programs as well. Mark has also worked closely with early-stage companies as an advisor. Most recently he served as a Mentor through XRC Labs, where he worked with three companies to shape their go to market strategies.

Mark holds an MBA in Finance from Rutgers.

Nicole is a proven operator, growth driver, and strategist who works with both startup and established brands to help them create, evolve and scale their direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, she has worked with dynamic brands Milly and Saturdays NYC, in addition to a mix of startups in the fashion, beauty, and CPG spaces through her consultancy platform, Ideally This. She also recently acted as an Operating Partner with D Luxury Brands, a modern capital group focused on investing in and supporting the growth of digitally native brands.

Nicole was one of the co-founders and COO at Dormify, a lifestyle DTC brand selling home décor for college students, taking it to market, and leading the company through several stages of growth.

John is a multifaceted global strategist and corporate growth specialist for the consumer retail, beauty and technology industries. His market experience spans Asia, North America and Western Europe, and his areas of expertise include Growth Strategy, New Market Entry, International Operation, M&A and Strategic Partnership.

Most recently, he served as the Chief Strategy Officer of CJ Olive Young, Korea’s No. 1 $1.5B health & beauty specialty retailer, where John spearheaded business model diversification, digital transformation and inorganic growth initiatives. Prior, he held leadership roles in global strategy, business development and operations with CJ Corporation and LG Electronics. John also spent ten years as a management consultant to senior executives in global telecom, media and technology sectors, leading client engagements in new market development, business optimization and risk mitigation.

John earned his MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and BA from Yale University.

Johanna has turned around, expanded, and created businesses globally. Her career has spanned senior operating roles in entertainment and retail, and consulting engagements at companies large and small. She is an out of box thinker developing strategic vision and tactical plans designed to achieve financial objectives, innovating to drive change and mastering complexity to drive successful project implementation.

As the co-founder at bgood collective she brings her strategy, insights, and operational experience to bear to guide clients through the path to sustainability. While at Accenture as a thought leader, she helped brands and retailers transform and stay relevant in a very competitive complex environment. Prior to Accenture, she held senior level roles at Walmart, Blockbuster, Fox and the Walt Disney company. She spent 5 years living in Asia and has done business in every region of the world.

Susan has extensive operating experience in retail and consumer marketing, new business development, brand strategy and store operations. Most recently, Susan has been a partner in a consulting practice specializing in brand building and retail marketing strategy where she blends traditional marketing tactics with social and digital media platforms. Her clients have included Bloomingdale’s, Avon Products, Company C, MyRegistry.com, Burlington Stores, Legacy Rug Company, and Fuji Film as well as startup ventures in home furnishings, consumer products and software services.

Susan has served as a senior marketing and business development executive for world class organizations including Bloomingdale’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Saks Fifth Avenue and Avon Products. She earned her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a BA/BS summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business.

David is a proven branding executive with over 30 years of international experience in global branding and business development. David has specialized in advisory services to the private equity, retail, fashion, home fashion and beauty industries. His clients have included Lion Capital, John Varvatos, Meryl Diamond Limited, Hatchbeauty Brands and Excell Home Fashions. Previously David was SVP of International Business Development at Hudson’s Bay Company/Saks Fifth Avenue where he was responsible for leading Saks Fifth Avenue’s international development strategy including the opening of 8 full line Saks stores in the Middle East, Central Asia and Mexico.

David also held executive positions at El Puerto de Liverpool in Mexico City and Bloomingdale’s. David holds an MBA from New York Institute of Technology and a BS from New York University.

Eric is a senior management and operating executive with leadership experience at prominent omni-channel public and private retail and wholesale businesses. His experience spans Cosmetics to Home to Apparel. Currently, he serves as an Operating Partner of Centre Partners, a multi-billion private equity fund, and on the Board of Nearly Natural, a consumer décor business.

Previously, he held multiple senior leadership roles with Macy’s including President of the Macy’s Bon Marché division in Seattle and President of the Macy’s Home Store. He also served as EVP of the Macy’s New York Cosmetics and Home Divisions. Eric has also served as President of the direct-to- consumer Chef’s catalogue, transforming it into e-commerce / omni-channel business, and was EVP of Dick’s Sporting Goods, and as a Board member of multiple consumer brands including Ashworth and Calloway Golf Products, CPI, Oneida, and Sure Fit.

Maya specializes in cross-functional and creative consulting for investment management firms with a focus on retail and consumer trends. She is an accomplished manager of due diligence and market research projects. Prior projects have included global small to mid-cap brick-and-mortar retailers, as well as major private domestic distressed CPG and retail companies.

Maya has partnered with numerous brands to identify the “why, how, and what” of their future roadmap. She utilizes an innovative approach to capture the underlying storylines of retailers and brands. In her five years at a multi-strategy hedge fund with $30 billion of assets under management, Maya reimagined survey research to produce insightful, statistically significant results when it matters most. Through consumer sentiment assessments and channel checks, she helps investors and other companies inform their strategic growth plans to overcome macro and micro-obstacles

Stephen is a proven merchandising executive with thirty+ years’ experience at the senior management, leadership level, both in the department store channel and the specialty channel. He has served as Senior Vice President General Merchandise Manager with the May Company, Federated Department Stores, Dick’s Sporting Goods and The Bon Ton Department Stores. Additionally Stephen served as Director of Wholesale Operations at Brookstone.
Recently-President/Owner/Operator Upholstery Unlimited, a Retail/Wholesale (to the trade) custom upholstery and window coverings enterprise comprised of store front show room and full service workroom.
Stephen brings a diverse product category background in home furnishings, cosmetics, men’s sportswear, as well as athletic sportswear and footwear.

Ron has been an auto industry expert for over 35+ years with senior management roles in Brand Management, Communications, Product Planning, Regulatory Affairs, and Market Research. At Chrysler, he managed marketing planning and communications for new vehicle programs and authored the research-based product positioning strategy for their breakout LH vehicles. Later, he led product planning teams utilizing in-depth consumer research culminating in becoming the global manager of consumer insights. Ron’s innovations included new research methodologies for rapid access to new buyer input, co-developing new psychographic segmentation, and concept creation/co-inventorship for the Chrysler Integrated Child Seat and RamBox pickup truck storage system. After Chrysler, Ron has continued to work on both the client and supplier side in market research. He holds a Doctorate in Jurisprudence, an MBA-Marketing, and Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology.