The Michael's Companies - Women In Retail 2022

THE ASSERTIVE & COURAGEOUS LEADER

Julie Averill joined lululemon in 2017 and has played a critical role in leveraging innovative technology to transform lululemon’s retail business and enhance guest experiences.

Prior to joining lululemon, Julie served as REI’s first-ever Chief Information Officer, and spent over a decade at Nordstrom, where she held several key positions on the company’s IT leadership team.

Julie earned her MBA from the University of Washington, and a BA in computer science from Seattle Pacific University. She serves on several non-profit Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) boards and in education advisory roles, working to educate and provide access to careers in technology.

Julie is also a mother of three teenagers and enjoys pilates, yoga, competitive sports and spending time with her family in the Puget Sound area.

Julie Averill

EVP & Chief Technology Officer, lululemon

March 2022

Julie Averill

Melissa Wong, CEO

COVER STORY

Judith McKenna

President & CEO, Walmart International

Karthicka Krishnasam

SVP, The Michael's Companies

07/05/2024 19:55:44

CURIOSITY, COURAGE & CONSISTENCY

Embracing change and transformation with courage are a must if you want to be a leader of the future.

Karthicka Krishnasamy serves as SVP, Merchandising Operations for Michael’s. She is responsible for leading merchandising planning, inventory, pricing, space planning, category management strategy and data analytics areas within the company.

Her team’s mission is to enable data-driven decision-making to help provide a compelling product assortment and frictionless shopping experience for the Makers. She works closely with the merchandising teams to improve overall category performance to drive growth, increase value for the Makers, and optimize product flow and operational efficiencies. “In today’s dynamic economic and logistical climate, my team’s work is extremely critical for the organization to drive growth while continuing to surprise and delight Makers with a compelling assortment at the best value possible,” explains Karthicka.

Prior to Michael’s, Karthicka spent 7 years at Walmart Inc., in various leadership roles. She started in Sam’s Club as a Senior Planner for ladies and kids apparel businesses. She quickly climbed the ladder from a Merchandise planner to a highly transformational, strategic leader as the Director of Planning and Inventory for apparel, accessories and jewelry and then served as VP Pricing, Exit & Auctions for Sam’s Club and finally VP, DMM leading the OMNI channel merchandising strategy and execution for varied categories. Prior to Walmart Inc., she worked at Sears Holding Corp leading various merchandise strategy and planning initiatives to maximize topline growth and reduce SG&A. “Holding a variety of cross-functional leadership roles has helped me gain perspectives and experiences that have made me the leader I am today,” she quips.

In every role, she has been instrumental not only in improving business efficiencies but also focused her time and attention training, developing and promoting diverse talent. She is best known for constantly challenging her associates to change the way they think and work beyond their comfort zones in order to reach their fullest potential. She believes no matter who you are or where you are from, all you need is a will to make change, and a determination to succeed. “I have always followed a simple framework to advocate for my or my team’s ideas: Anchor ideas to data and facts, highlight the value proposition for the company’s greater good, know your decision makers/partners in the group and tailor your pitch accordingly,” she says.

Courageous and strong-willed, Karthicka spent close to a decade in the consulting space where she honed her skills that form the foundation of the leader she is today—excelled in being detail-oriented, results-driven and customer-focused, strengthened her abilities to dissect the business need, developed a forward-thinking approach, art of collaboration and exploring all viable solutions and finally mastered a high-level business analysis competence.

Raised in a conservative middle-class family in Southern India, Karthicka has always stood out of the norm with her positive-driven attitude to break stereotypes associated with women in workforce. At each stage of her career, Karthicka had to rewrite the rules, learn from her team, and then transform to leave the organization in a better place than before. Her passion and dedication helped her to push forward ideas and propel higher.

She follows a simple rule of “the 3C’s”: Curiosity, Courage & Consistency. “In a fast-paced retail world, if you are not curious you will become obsolete. Technology is accelerating the pace of growth and innovation, and lines between domains are increasingly blurred. Embracing change and transformation with courage are a must if you want to be a leader of the future. Innovation comes from curiosity, courage drives disruption and consistency builds trust with your people to drive business results. Last but not the least, always simplify!” says Karthicka.

As a leader with high expectations, Karthicka emphasizes on how important it is to always be consistent regardless of circumstances. “Leaders must take the time to learn how their work interconnects with the rest of the organization, and use their creativity to rearrange things in new and unexpected ways. You must challenge yourself to see beyond the status quo and push your team forward to take calculated risks powered by curiosity. They say “Known is a drop and unknown is an ocean,” so we should all be lifelong students,” she notes

GO TO TOP

Karthicka Krishnasamy

SVP, Merchandising Operations, The Michael's Companies

March 2022

Curiosity, Courage & Consistency

Nominated by Engage3

Melissa Wong, CEO

COVER STORY

Julie Averill

EVP & CTO, lululemon

Kathryn McLay

President and CEO, Sam’s Club

07/05/2024 19:55:44

The Value-Driven Leader

Stop seeking approval for your accomplishments and begin focusing on doing the best job you could for your company. You will see the magic! Your career begins to take off.

Kathryn McLay is president and CEO of Sam’s Club, a members-only warehouse club. A division of Walmart Inc., with 100,000 associates and nearly 600 clubs.

Kathryn has turned Sam’s into one of the retail winners of the pandemic, with fiscal year 2020 revenue climbing 9% to $64 billion and operating income up 16%. Membership at Walmart’s warehouse club division has grown at a record pace, too, hitting an all-time high. The Aussie has rolled out new ways to shop: Last year, Sam’s piloted a service that lets customers place direct-to-home orders while perusing the aisles.

Speaking at NRF Converge last year, Kathryn said, “My experience in retail has taught me that if you put profit as your primary goal, you fail. You have to start with, ‘How do I create value? For us, if you boil it down to the essence, it’s great items at disruptive prices. You build out from there. Then we have 100,000 associates — we need to make sure they have great jobs and great careers. Beyond that, we look at how we relate to the earth. We’re proud that we’re a sustainable player. But the heart of it is creating value for members, and from that you generate a profit. Not that any of this is easy. You have to figure it out. Part of it is automation and technology. Part of it is simplifying processes in the clubs themselves. If you’re clever and smart, you can grow and be profitable at the same time”

Kathryn has held a number of leadership roles at Walmart since joining in 2015 as vice president of U.S. Finance & Strategy. Her first role was driving the transformation of the Walmart U.S. business through oversight of a set of strategic, cross-functional initiatives called Legacy. In 2016, she moved to Supply Chain, where she redesigned the way product moved from supplier to shelf, created an integrated end-to-end Walmart U.S. supply chain and also led operations of the imports and reverse networks. In 2018, she was named executive vice president of Neighborhood Markets for the Walmart U.S. business, where she led the overall operations of nearly 700 of the small-format stores across the country.

Kathryn began her career in 1992 at Deloitte as an undergraduate and worked in both internal and external audit and later at Qantas Airlines. In 2001, Kathryn joined Australian retailer Woolworths in corporate audit and completed her professional studies as a Certified Internal Auditor. Kathryn was then appointed head of audit reporting to the CEO and the audit committee chair. In 2007, she was selected as the general manager for business development and subsequently held executive leadership roles throughout Woolworths’ retail and supply chain.

She is past president and chairwoman of the Institute of Internal Auditors and also served as a board member of ECRA, an industry board comprised of retailers and suppliers.

A native of Australia, Kathryn has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Technology in Sydney.

Kathryn and her husband live in Bentonville, Arkansas, with their three children. She currently serves on the Northwest Arkansas Regional Board of Make-A-Wish Mid-South.

In an interview conducted virtually as part of the Women’s Empowerment Summit, an annual event held by the Northwest Arkansas chapter, Kathryn was asked what advice she would tell herself as a young executive if she could go back in time. She recalled a time when she began to wonder if her potential was lost in the eyes of management after a shift in upper management. As a determined and goal-oriented young executive, Kathryn said she heaped a set of expectations on herself and worked hard to accomplish those goals. Much to her surprise, her new bosses didn’t seem to notice. It wasn’t until she spoke with another female leader she realized the contract between herself and the employer required she do a job and there was no guarantee of praise or promotion, as those were elements she had for herself. Kathryn said once she stopped seeking approval for her accomplishments and began focusing on doing the best job she could for the company, her career began to take off.

She also said too often women with potential don’t have the confidence to speak up or seek seats at the table unless they are invited. That’s when you should begin looking for opportunities to mentor and sponsor other females wanting to build careers in retail.