Macy's - Women In Retail 2022

THE ASSERTIVE & COURAGEOUS LEADER

Monica Schwartz is Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer of BJ’s Wholesale Club.

Monica joined BJ’s Wholesale Club as Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer in 2020 and was appointed to her current role in 2021.

Prior to that, Schwartz was Vice President, Online Merchandising at Home Depot, where she was responsible for leading the company’s online merchandising and category experience across desktop, mobile web and the app.

Prior to Home Depot, Schwartz held various leadership positions at Nine West Holdings, Stuart Weitzman, David Yurman and eBay. She holds a Master of Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Miami University.

Monica Schwartz

EVP, Chief Digital Officer, BJ's Wholesale Club

March 2022

Monica Schwartz

Melissa Wong, CEO

COVER STORY

Molly Langenstein

CEO & President, Chico’s FAS

Nata Dvir

Chief Merchandising Officer, Macy's

07/05/2024 19:55:46

The Curious Leader

Have the courage to speak up and share her ideas. Do not hesitate asking for more exposure to get to that next level.

Nata Dvir was appointed Macy’s chief merchandising officer in February 2021 for leading Macy’s Merchandising, with oversight of all merchandising categories and private brands. She steers merchandising transformation, influencing Macy’s customers’ personal style through accessible fashion, clear value and an enhanced digital and store experience.

At the time of appointment, Jeff Gennette, Macy’s, Inc. chairman and CEO had said, “Nata is a strong merchant with deep connections to our partners, first-rate instincts and an eye for newness,” In September 2017, Nata was named Macy’s General Business Manager for Beauty, a new role in the organization. In that role, she transformed the cosmetics and fragrance business, creating a more open and experiential environment in store, enhancing entertainment and customer experiences, taking a fresh approach to digital engagement and expanding new brands. In February 2020, Nata added responsibility for Center Core merchandise, including jewelry, handbags, shoes, intimate apparel and accessories. Since that time, she has infused newness by adding brands and updated products. She is focused on expanding Macy’s online assortment and evolving the service model in stores.

Nata has held various leadership roles within Macy’s merchant organization, including experience in Men’s, Beauty, Shoes, Jewelry, Food and Licensed businesses.

Nata began her career as an executive trainee at Macy’s. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University.

Nata is a retail leader with ability to couple innovative thinking and analytics to build compelling product strategy to evolve businesses. She is passionate about listening to the customer and solving their needs. She has a reputation of being able to quickly identify opportunities from product to execution and collaborate across functions to implement. Over the years, she has developed leadership skills that create an engaged culture focused on growth through creativity, process and agility. A strong collaborator with both internal and external partners Nata has a rich omnichannel experience in merchandising, inventory and financial planning in varied categories under her belt.

It was at one of the Macy’s conference, Nata remembers approaching one of the company senior leaders at the time (and now CEO), Jeff Gennette, and asked him to mentor her. "He said yes!," says Nata. This gave her the forum to share ideas and insights around where Macy’s could improve to be more relevant with a younger consumer. It also allowed her to build a strong relationship with leadership within our organization, and most importantly gave her the confidence to speak up and share her ideas.

GO TO TOP

Nata Dvir

Chief Merchandising Officer, Macy's

March 2022

The Curious Leader

Melissa Wong, CEO

COVER STORY

Monica Schwartz

EVP, BJ's Wholesale Club

Neelima V. Sharma

SVP, Lowe's

07/05/2024 19:55:46

THE INNOVATION LEADER

Continual learning and evolving is important to embark into the future. Be courageous. Pick the hardest assignments. Take jobs that nobody else wants.

Neelima Sharma has more than 27 years of experience building technology products that drive business outcomes, enhance customer experience, and simplify operations. As senior vice president, technology, e-commerce, marketing, and merchandising, she is responsible for driving Lowe’s omnichannel digital and e-commerce technology to deliver frictionless digital shopping experiences for customers. Neelima also spearheads the development of Lowe’s marketing technology capabilities, including Lowe’s One Roof Media Network and the company’s personalization and customer loyalty technology.

As part of her role, she works alongside business partners in translating Lowe’s business strategy into technology product roadmaps that improve customer, vendor, and associate experiences.

“Spurred by the pandemic, we’ve seen a tremendous appetite from our customers for technology-driven experiences, and my team has been working tirelessly to cater to this changing tide. Our work revolves around accessing the customer across every touchpoint. By leveraging the power of our apps, we’re able to stitch the digital and physical worlds together to provide them with an all-new and revolutionary way to shop and interact with us, whether at home, on job sites, or inside the store,” explains Neelima.

Some of the initiatives she has steered over the last 24 months include new visualization tools and AR capabilities, advancing Lowe’s Customer 360 and personalization platforms to build best-in-class search and recommendation capabilities, as well as modernizing Lowe’s content and pricing capabilities and improving fulfillment experiences.

Before joining Lowe's, Neelima served as senior director and head of technology for Staples' $8 billion B2B e-commerce business. Previously, she successfully led many transformational technology initiatives that delivered outstanding results at multiple companies, including Staples, JP Morgan Chase, and Deloitte.

Driven by passion to build technology, Neelima says, “When I was going to school, none of the modern technologies—cloud services or micro-services architecture existed. Continual learning and evolving is important to embark into the future. The other important thing is to be courageous. Pick the hardest assignments. Take jobs that nobody else wants. That’s risk taking. You may not know how to get started. But as you learn, you will know how to finish it. You should have the desire to keep evolving yourself.”

Early on in her life, Neelima had read Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “I was drawn to two things that have helped me progress in my career: Begin with the end in mind and Put first things first. As I grew in my career, I took those fundamental notions and made it as a way of thinking. When it comes to Begin with the end in mind, there is activity or step we are taking without knowing where we are going in mind. All our initiative are outcome-based, OKR-based product models. When it comes to Put first things first – it’s all about prioritization and time management. Whether it is relating to organization or personal, focus on the things that are important and don't let random tasks get in the way of your productivity,” says Neelima.