Join us at our Retail and Design Executive Speaker Series, and sit in on sessions with industry executives. Sessions will run from October 20–22 on Zoom.
This is event is free and open to the public.
October 20, 2020, 7pm
Michelle Mackin, Sr. VP GMM, Famous Footwear
Michelle is a passionate high energy merchant with over 30+ years of retail experience. Her retail career began very early in life, as she helped her mother own and operate several specialty/boutique clothing stores. This unique experience enabled her to gain invaluable insight into merchandising from a very young age. She subsequently attended Eastern Illinois University where she earned a degree in Apparel Merchandising. Following graduation, she began a 22 year career with May Company Stores/ Macy’s in St. Louis, MO where she held various positions including VP/DMM. In 2009, Michelle accepted a position with Famous Footwear and currently leads a team of footwear and accessory buyers for the 1,000 store chain. Michelle resides in St. Louis, MO with her husband Paul. They have 3 children, their oldest Andrew is an attorney, Alexander, their middle child, is a sales representative for a medical device company, working and living in Munich, Germany. Their youngest, Natalie is a senior at Indiana University-Bloomington.
October 21, 2020, 7pm
Suzanne Silverstein, President, 7 for All Mankind and Jen7
Suzanne Silverstein’s career began with the Birmingham-based department store Parisian in the executive training program. She left Parisian, and joined the Saks Fifth Avenue center core merchant team as the semi-precious jewelry buyer. Suzanne was also a merchant in footwear, a director of planning and finally the DMM/VP overseeing contemporary sportswear, coats, swim and dresses. In her role as DMM/VP, she managed a $250M business, and twice she and her team were honored with the Saks Fifth Avenue Associate First Diamond award. This was the highest level of award given to a Saks corporate team, criteria for award included financial performance, excellence in merchandising and leadership. The leadership and merchandising was determined by a vote from all Saks stores and the corporate office.
Suzanne left Saks to form her own consultancy, Silverstein Consulting, and worked with a variety of luxury and contemporary brands including Zac Posen, Mackage, Sam Edelman and Rebecca Taylor. She helped clients drive wholesale share of market and ecommerce revenue. Under her consulting umbrella, she helped dramatically grow the now Nordstrom-owned company Hautelook’s NYC offices and led their bi-coastal brand team.
A former client orchestrated Suzanne’s transition to the branded business as she joined the originator of premium denim, 7 for All Mankind, as Vice-President of US Wholesale. In addition to leading the sales organization, Suzanne was the thought leader and driving force for critical launches including the
Luxe Performance franchise and the JEN7 brand. She was designated “Top Talent” by 7 for All Mankind executive leadership and attended VF Leadership Institute, a think tank and leadership training for VF Corporation top talent.
In 2014 Suzanne became the President of Parker, a women’s contemporary sportswear brand. In her time there, Suzanne restructured the business to bring ecommerce in-house and launched both their evening collection, Parker Black, and a casual category, Parker Weekend.
Suzanne re-joined the 7 for All Mankind team as President in June 2019. Her focus has been on infusing the brand DNA throughout the organization as a daily practice, mining data and insights to better understand the customer, determining positioning in the marketplace and identifying product white space to drive growth of the brand. Suzanne believes that culture breeds success and is architecting a culture of communication and alignment, so that all team members feel they are informed and part of the company’s achievements.
Suzanne is a graduate of Indiana University.
Suzanne resides in Manhattan with her husband and two children.
October 22, 2020, 7pm
Stacia Anderson, Executive Vice President, Merchandising & Customer Experience at PetSmart
Stacia Andersen joined PetSmart as EVP of Merchandising and Customer Experience in April 2019. Prior to PetSmart, Stacia served as brand president of Abercrombie & Fitch, where she led the rebuilding and transformation of all aspects of the Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie kids brands. Previously, she worked for Target for more than 20 years, where she held various leadership roles including President of Sourcing and Senior Vice President of Merchandising for several different divisions including: Apparel, Accessories and Baby, and Home and Seasonal. Stacia is an active member of her community, having served in leadership roles for non-profit organizations including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Kids in Need Foundation. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Musical Instrument Museum. She is also a champion of diversity, having served as an executive sponsor of the African American Business Council for Target. Stacia earned a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Communication from Buena Vista University.
The Retail + Design Forum is sponsored by the Center for Innovative Merchandising, the Retail Studies Organization, and the Indiana University Funding Board.