Partners

Ken Hewes President, Strategy

Ken has over 25 years combined consulting and retail executive experience, working primarily with CEOs, other C‐level executives, Board Directors and private equity firms in the areas of strategy, brand delivery, marketing, merchandising, and business planning. His past clients include NIKE, Coach, and Victoria’s Secret.

Before founding Mōd, Ken was Vice President of Strategic Solutions at First Insight, a retail technology company. Previous to First Insight, he was co-founder and CEO of Black Dog Strategy Partners, Inc., an enterprise not unlike Mōd, focused on retail and fashion brands. Before that, Ken was a Vice President for Limited Brands, where he worked on brand management and long­‐range planning for several of its retail business units. Ken’s other experience includes several years each at Price Waterhouse Coopers and Strategic Planning Associates, with consulting engagements in the retail, consumer packaged goods, real estate, government, media, telecommunications and petroleum industries.

Ken holds degrees from Yale College (BA) and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (MBA).

Marie Rao Design and Brand Strategy

A design and branding expert, Marie Rao has held a number of esteemed roles within the fashion industry and is looked to as a leading voice and influencer. She is currently Chief Executive Officer of MRao Design Consulting Group. Previously, she served as SVP and Chief Creative Officer, Women’s Private Brands for Hudson’s Bay Company, designing womenswear for two of North America’s most iconic department stores: Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay. Prior to joining Hudson’s Bay Company in November 2012, she served as Chief Design Officer at New York & Company from 2007 to 2010. In between, she led her own branding and design consultant agency, MRao Designs LLC. From 1997 to 2006, as President of Limited Design Services, Marie led a think tank of 60 designers, working on special projects for the Chairman; in this role, she created Victoria’s Secret PINK and Body by Victoria for Victoria’s Secret. Marie also served as Executive Vice President of Design and President of Banana Republic, from 1993 to 1997, reporting to Mickey Drexler. In that role, she created the modern Banana Republic brand, transforming it from its safari roots.

Suzanne Vincent Store Operations, Global Management, Training and Development

Suzanne Vincent has 30 years experience in delivering exceptional experiences through proven retail operations practices and technologies. She has strong cross-functional relationship skills learned while executing transformational projects for Fortune 500 retailers, global franchise partners and small start-ups. Suzanne’s consulting experiences equate to an ability to objectively analyse current environments, develop effective solutions and deliver them through test and learn methodologies, training development, change management, roll-out delivery and sustainment. Her past clients include Victoria’s Secret (US), L Brands International, Limited Technology Services (now Mast Global), Claire’s (Global), The Limited, Lane Bryant and 5.11 Tactical.

Jim Wright Marketing and Ecommerce

A product of the Internet revolution, Jim began his career on the agency side, where he helped to launch digital marketing and web design services for Market.al. Inc., a full service agency. Jim’s most recent role was Senior Vice President of Direct and Chief Digital Officer for Things Remembered. He served as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Joanne Stores from 2014 to 2015 and Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Ecommerce at Express, Inc. from 2007 to 2013.

Over the past 23 years, he has served in Marketing and Ecommerce leadership roles for such companies as Express, JoAnn’s Stores, Things Remembered, Camelot Music, Cole National, American Greetings, America Online and Limited Brands. Jim has been responsible launch of several major Ecommerce businesses, the development of award winning marketing and loyalty programs and led several major customer data initiatives.

Alice Hilliard Merchant, Strategy, Research

Alice has 25 years of merchandising experience, culminating with senior executive roles at The Limited (AVP of Accessories) and Lane Bryant (SVP/GMM of sportswear). Alice is a passionate merchandising and product development executive with expertise in buying and planning, trend and product development. She is a strategic thinker, and also able to act in a tactical manner. She displays high energy, dedication and passion for product. Alice is also recognized for understanding the customer and building critical partnerships. She is an accomplished leader proven to manage, guide and coach others to achieve team goals. She consistently demonstrates results that significantly increase sales volume.

Jim Thompson Performance Marketing

Jim is a recognized leader in Performance Marketing, with deep experience leveraging CRM, Loyalty, Mobile, & Digital marketing.  Throughout his career, Jim has helped multiple brands implement customer strategies that delivered engaging customer experiences.  Over the years, these innovative programs and strategies have profitably generated billions in sales, been recognized the industry and featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

Jim has also helped multiple brands adopt omni-channel marketing capabilities and has led the successful implementation of two single-view of the customer systems.  Most recently, Jim was Head of Performance Marketing for American Eagle Outfitters, where he helped drive the omni-channel initiative, launched single-view of the customer, transformed digital marketing, and re-launched a mobile program capable of driving 60% customer engagement.  Additionally, Jim spent 15 years the Limited Brands family of brands where he successfully implemented this approach at Victoria’s Secret and Express, among others.

Steve Morris Real Estate

Founder and CEO of Asset Strategies Group (ASG), Steve has worked with over 60 fashion specialty retailers on all aspects of their real estate supply chain.  Prior to founding ASG, Steve was CFO and CAO of Limited Brands’ Real Estate and Store Design and Construction shared service organization and responsible for a $1 billion annual occupancy expense budget and over $300 million in annual capital spending.  A Harvard MBA, he has more than 25 years experience working in department store, big box and specialty store retail organizations.

Separately or partnered with Mōd, ASG offers consulting and business solutions that impact each portion of the real estate supply chain, from market research and analytics, to tenant representation, store design and construction, and lease administration/rent accounting.  ASG’s strategy work includes customer, trade area and performance analytics, market optimization, sales modeling and ASGportfolio, an annual asset management/portfolio review process ASG manages for a number of leading specialty retailers.

Rob Gallo Strategy, Business Advisory, Consumer Research

Rob Gallo has more than 18 years of experience as a trusted strategist driving real business results for the world’s biggest brands. During his career he has been involved in a wide range of strategy engagements. Rob also has significant experience with primary consumer research.

For retailers, Rob’s work includes customer, brand and marketing strategy as well as extensive primary research. For suppliers, Rob has focused on category leadership, go-to-market strategy and market entry engagements. For several private equity firms, Rob has performed due diligence analysis to assess the investment potential of specific companies, retail sectors and business models.

Some of Rob’s clients include 7-Eleven, Belk, Bloomingdale’s, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Hewlett Packard, The Home Depot, L Brands, Macy’s, Sam’s Club, Sunoco, Tyson Foods and Walmart.

Rob is an active member on advisory boards and has held senior positions at Impact 21, Chute Gerdeman, Kantar Retail, Retail Forward and the Management Horizons Division of Price Waterhouse.

Angela Thompson Marketing Strategy and Analytics

Angela has extensive experience in the retail and consumer products goods industries. She is a multi-faceted resource for her clients with the ability to think strategically and develop actionable, detailed plans rooted in analytics and an understanding of the consumer. Angela is an expert at analyzing consumer data, marketing results, consumer research and competitive actions. She creates succinct, go-forward strategies and has extensive experience in business case development for new products, programs and markets.

She has served respected brands such as Alliance, Highlights for Children, Justice, Kenneth Cole, NetJets, Nottingham Spirk, The Scotts MiracleGro Company and Victoria’s Secret.
Prior to consulting, Angela worked in Marketing Strategy at Victoria’s Secret, Product Management at American Greetings and as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Tanya Zyabkina Analytics and Data Science

Tanya is a consumer analytics and data science expert who uncovered insights that impacted business strategy for multiple retail brands and a leading telecom company. Her work spans from qualitative research in the fashion industry to determining the impact of promotions for a cable provider. Her passion is figuring out which programs delivered value for the company, be that a visit by a technical specialist or new merchandise assortment. Tanya’s work for Victoria’s Secret covered brand image analytics and CRM program effectiveness. At AutoZone, she delivered strategic insights on long term performance of the company and customer satisfaction. As a Director of Marketing Analytics she led a team that tackled most complex analytical problems in pricing, customer service, and retention.