My Story
I had a passion for design from a very young age. At the age of 6 years old, I began designing and sewing my Barbie's clothes. And at 14, I was redecorating and providing spatial plans for people’s homes. This came as no surprise to my grandmother who encouraged me to follow my calling as I come from a long line of apparel and interior designers. It comes naturally to me, it’s what I’m passionate about and is in my blood. After completing my degree in design at Ryerson, I then moved to the design mecca of the world: Paris, France for a year.
Early in my career, I designed for dress manufacturers, working in both small and medium sized companies. From designing and pattern drafting, to managing production for growing businesses. I got my taste for textiles and product development, and I was hooked. I loved apparel, but my second love of interior design was calling. A few years into my career as an apparel designer in 2004, I was approached by Sears Canada to partner with Martha Stewart on her homewares line and re-envision her brand for the Canadian customer. I learned how to create print-ready repeat designs for textiles and design and source full collections. After successfully launching the Canadian specific Martha Stewart line, I partnered with Roots Canada to launch the soft home portion of Roots Home at Sears Canada. For 9 years I lead the brand development, design and sourcing of soft lines (textiles) for the retailer for both their private label lines as well as their captive brand lines.
In 2012 I was approached by Walmart Canada to join their team to revamp their homeliness brands and assortments in preparation for some heavy competition who was entering the retail landscape. My personal mandate was to bring style and design to an affordable level without compromising on quality. In this role, I not only lead a team of designers to revamp all of home (Bed, Bath, Window, Draperies, Blankets, Throws, Rugs, Wall Art, Decor, Lighting, Furniture and Tableware), but seasonal and hardlines businesses as well (Christmas, Summer Patio, camping and sports equipment). I owned the full end to end product lifecycle. This included: building the strategy, predicting trends, competitive analysis, identifying gaps in assortment, designing and sourcing product, package design, on shelf merchandising and influencing the Marketing team to drive change with our marketing vehicles (print, digital and social). I was also the lead on working with House & Home on paid features. Industry professionals began to notice the change at Walmart. Colin and Justin are big fans! Click on the link below to watch the video.
https://www.btvancouver.ca/videos/spring-home-decor-trends-with-colin-justin/
As the retail world evolves and E-Commerce becomes ever important as a fulfilment channel, I decided to switch gears in 2018 and leverage my project management and creative problem-solving skills by joining the Omni Channel team at Walmart to lead the Online Grocery operations. I’ve always been a self-professed foodie, so Online Groceries was a natural fit. In this role, I’ve had the pleasure of launching powerful associate tools to drive productivity as well as customer improvement technologies to drive CSAT. Throughout 2020, the Online Grocery business saw incredible, unprecedented 6X order growth! I had the pleasure leading the COVID war room workstream with the senior leadership team and project managing multiple cross functional teams to accelerate growth through capacity increases, accelerated store openings, rollout of never-done-before customer services (such as front line worker OG order pickup at local hospitals and enabling call in priority order placement for seniors and the disabled), diversification of call center support and many more.
I am also very passionate about talent development and am involved with Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Central Operations (ADCO), a professional development circle within Walmart’s Central Operations team as well as being a leader and steering committee member of Women in Retail (WIR), a networking and professional development group for high potential managers where we realized a 47% promotion rate for members during my 2015/2016 tenure.
The combination of merchandising, brand and product development, eComm tech development and overall strategy building and project management make me a strong leader with a proven track record of getting things done!