Big names in retail coming to IUB campus
Representatives from various distributing and retail firms as well as the National Retail Federation will speak on the IU Bloomington campus on Oct. 15.
Indiana University seniors Alyse Bartlemay and Dennis Wenzhao Mu at last year’s Retail and Design Forum. The slide behind them refers to the world’s largest apparel wholesale show, held in Las Vegas.
The Retail and Design Forum is from 9:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union. Sponsored by IU’s Retail Studies Organization, it is free and open to all IU students and faculty.
“We have some amazing speakers coming to campus to share with our students about the retail industry,” said Janis Shaffer, a lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Apparel Merchandising and Design who serves as a faculty advisor for the Retail Studies Organization. “We are very fortunate to have such an esteemed group of industry executives volunteering their time and financial resources to come to campus.”
Speakers are:
- 9:45 a.m. — Paul Rosengard, president of Li & Fung USA, who formerly served as group president of premium brands at Perry Ellis International, is consistently recognized as one of Women’s Wear Daily’s “most powerful people in menswear” and is an adjunct faculty member at Parsons School for Design.
- 11 a.m. — Ellen Davis, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation and executive director of the NRF Foundation, who is widely credited with coining the phrase “Cyber Monday,” the day that represents the official kickoff of the online holiday shopping season.
- 1:20 p.m. — Dawn Robertson, CEO of Deb Shops, who formerly served as president of Sean John, an apparel company founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
- 2:40 p.m. — Michael Gilbert, senior vice president of product development at Kohl’s, leading the teams that manage brand and line development, sourcing and production for 14 private and exclusive brands for the department store.
- 4 p.m. — Allen Sirkin, the former president and COO of PVH Corp., which owns and markets the Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Izod and Eagle brands, among others.
Tags: Allen Sirkin, Dawn Robertson, Ellen Davis, Janis Shaffer, Michael Gilbert, National Retail Federation, Paul Rosengard, Retail and Design Forum, Retail Studies Organization
