The Grayson Company team is made up of successful retail and consumer industry executives who draw on their deep experience and expertise to provide best of class consulting services to our clients. The team is led by founder Bob Grayson and CEO, Kevin Mullaney who together have over 75 years of industry experience. Their styles and specific experience are complimentary and they share an obsession with delivering measurable results to our clients quickly and with high payback on the investment in our engagements.
Kevin has extensive retail experience in the department store, specialty chain and wholesale channels. His ten years in merchandising leadership experience at Burdines’s (now Macy’s), his CMO experience with a menswear specialty chain, and his seven years at Hilfiger leading the expansion of the brands presence in department stores during the brand’s extraordinary growth period, have prepared him to offer The Grayson Company clients exceptional advice, and hands-on assistance in improving the productivity and profitability of their businesses. Kevin, as President, leads The Grayson Company practice but brings particular expertise to store and shop in shop development, assortment planning, inventory planning and control, as well as in store visual merchandising and marketing. Read Kevin Mullaney’s full bio
Our Team Members
Elaine Hughes is simply the most trusted and successful professional in the consumer products executive search industry. For almost 25 years, the world’s largest retailers and consumer product companies have turned to her both in management crises and for her expertise in long-term management team building strategy. Elaine’s credentials include years of real experience both on the inside and on the consulting/executive search side of the industry. This combination of experience has honed Elaine’s well-known ability to grasp the real needs of a business and match the executive candidate who has both the style and experience needed to create a winning fit. Elaine is regularly quoted in a number of publications, including Women’s Wear Daily, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Read Elaine Hughes full bio
Steve has over 30 years of senior management, marketing and merchandising experience in retail, e-commerce and direct marketing as well as extensive experience in global brand and business development. Steve began his career at Allied Stores (now Macy’s), and became the Senior Vice President of the Home business. At American Express, he served as Vice President and General Manager of the Merchandise Services Group for ten years. Steve also served as President of the Lifestyles Group of Redcats, a $1.6 billion catalog and e-commerce division of PPR, Paris. Steve has also held leadership roles with other key retailers and marketers such as Bloomingdale’s and ABC Home, and was a Partner with a leading business development and licensing firm in New York City. Read Steve Goldberg’s full bio
Amanda Davenport leads the market and consumer research team at TGC and has produced highly actionable research data for our clients which has been critical to their forward strategies. She joined TGC with experience at UBS Investment Bank where she conducted extensive research and developed forward outlooks for companies including AVON, Procter & Gamble, Sports Authority and Wal-Mart. Amanda also brings to TGC consulting experience in the restaurant industry, focusing on expansion through franchising strategies.
Chris’s superior analytical skills and retail knowledge have enabled him to play critical roles in the development of highly leverageable analyses of company data for our investor clients as they consider investments in the consumer sector and analyze performance of existing portfolio companies. He has exceptional experience and expertise in the planning, management, and control of inventories, as well as assortment planning. During his seven years with our group, Chris has led the implementation of TGC planning and allocation processes with retail clients which have produced substantial performance improvement.
David brings over three decades of retail industry experience to his TGC engagements. Having worked in senior positions with Neiman-Marcus and Marshall Field during intense periods of corporate change, he acquired a unique, broad range of experience and expertise which he applies in projects focused on merchandising processes, systems development, assortment and inventory planning, as well as overall strategy development. David has consulted with, among others, Charlotte Russe, Time Warner, American Express, Giorgio Armani, and Sony Corporation. Read David Ball’s full bio
Jennifer’s background and skill sets span merchandising, planning, analysis and allocation, and budgeting. Her career began at Bloomingdales where she advanced to lead the budgeting, planning and analysis, and sales forecasting functions for a $500M business. She provides hands-on leadership and assistance to TGC clients, ensuring that inventory plans are developed on solid assumptions and that performance analysis provides reliable decision making support to merchant teams. Read Jennifer Benerofe’s full bio
Jim’s first experience in real estate was growing a seasonal retail business from its initial 4 locations to a portfolio of over 375 mall locations. Subsequently, he served as General Counsel for The National Mall Monitor, which grew to become one of the leading publications in the shopping center industry. Through the years Jim has built a strong tenant representation and legal practice serving clients such as: J.Crew, Yves. Saint Laurent, Gucci, Movado, Oilily, Crane, Icing, and Tom Ford. Read Jim Bieri’s full bio
Steve is considered by the industry to be the “Dean” of planning, analysis and allocation for specialty chains. During over 30 years of experience, he has led these functions for billion dollar companies. He has also contributed to some of the most sophisticated planning software systems on the market today and trained the leaders of planning for many leading specialty chains.
Barry is a highly qualified and respected financial and operating executive who has served as EVP/CFO of Express, COO of J. Crew, COO of Ann Taylor and President/COO of Build-A-Bear. He has served as a director of Bluefly and serves as an advisor and member of the TGC retail consultant team, through which he served as interim CEO of FAO Schwartz prior to its sale to Toys “R” Us. He also serves on the Board and audit committee for Destination Maternity. Read Barry Erdos’ full bio
Rabia Farhang has extensive executive merchandising leadership experience and deep expertise in the specialty women’s apparel and accessories market. Working for fashion retailers Caché and White House | Black Market, she built high-performing organizations and led positive business transformation to deliver significant results. Read Rabia Farhang’s full bio
Dennis is one of the industry’s leading supply chain consultants. His extensive experience over a 20 year period with Target, as the company was experiencing extraordinary growth and rapidly changing demand for support services, has allowed him deep experience in addressing all aspects of the supply chain, from replenishment systems, to inventory and warehouse management, to overall supply chain strategy. His clients have included, among others, BCBG Max Azria, Gymboree, Levi Strauss, Nordstrom, and Trader Joes. Read Dennis Green’s full bio
With over 20 years of deep experience in store design, visual merchandising, store fixturing and project management, Terri brings taste and high touch to every project in which she works. She has led the visual merchandising function at highly successful companies like Ralph Lauren and Ann Taylor and has consulted with many successful consumer brands as well as several hospitality groups including Marriott’s Renaissance division. Read Terri Hamilton’s full bio
Steve has 25+ years of experience working with leading retailers and technology companies in delivering high-value IT-enabled business solutions. As a past partner/senior executive in the retail practice of Accenture, Steve brings to our consulting clients hands-on expertise in procurement, merchandising, planning, direct-to-consumer, and supply chain. Steve has worked with several well-known retailers globally including A&P, Coles Myer, Foot Locker, Gap, The Home Depot, Limited Stores, Saks Fifth Avenue, J. Sainsbury, and The Sports Authority.
Jhipo’s exceptional expertise in the blending of functional structures of retail environments, with the aesthetics of branding elements, has created high impact, high performance retail stores for many clients including Godiva, Tempur-Pedic, Luxottica, Macy’s and Sony. He is a classically trained industrial designer, and over his 20 years in retail design, has become one of the outstanding leaders in the industry.
Beth’s brings to The Grayson Company a reputation as one of the leading experts in retail. Over the past 30 years she developed a diverse range of expertise in Business Operations, Analysis and Reporting, Process Development and Implementation, Project Management and Store Development. Her work and leadership have been instrumental to companies in both the department store and specialty store sectors including Ann Taylor, Lord & Taylor, and Avenue as well as for clients including Warnaco, Kid Brands, Deckers, Tempur-Pedic, and Sky IT as a consultant. She is an innovative, “make it happen” individual and that makes a profound impact on creating a superior and engaging consumer experience while improving efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability. Read Beth Kaplan’s full bio.
Madeleine is an authority on managing large-scale, complex systems delivery and IT organizations. Madeleine’s career spans over 30 years, holding prominent positions with IBM and Oracle before a successful consulting career. She has worked with numerous well-known brands such as Ann Taylor, Chanel, Coach, David Yurman, Marshalls, and Tiffany and served as the PMO Director at one of the largest food distributors in the US. Her experience also includes working with start-up and emerging growth companies. Madeleine excels in critical change initiatives including IT-business alignment, demand management, resource planning, strategic project assessments, and professional development.
Paul is recognized as one of the industry’s most experienced and qualified IT executives specialized in ecommerce and content management systems. He achieved an exceptional track record of success in high profile systems work at Verizon Business, Finaples, a developer of softwaare for financial institutions, and served as business manager for the consumer sites of SBC and Cingular. His well earned credentials allowed him to be selected as lead analyst in the launch of Macy’s.com. He also designed and launched many of the business processes at Macy’s which enabled it to become the most successful on-line department store in the industry. Paul’s consulting clients include Comrade Agency, ThoughtMatrix, Rogue Digital and Brandt Works.
Rachael is known in the retail industry as the “go to” person for streamlining and organizing store operations, creating policy manuals that are thorough and easy to understand, and developing training programs. Since 1990, Rachael has worked with retail companies including Barnes & Nobel, Barneys New York, Brooks Brothers, Chanel, Elie Tahari, Intermix, J. Crew, and Patagonia to provide structure to field and corporate office initiatives, and to provide expert advice on selection and implementation of point of sale systems. Rachel previously held Director positions at Limited, Lane Bryant, Lerner Woman, and Circus World Toys. Read Rachel Mitchell’s full bio
Steve’s experience includes having served as CFO and CAO of the real estate and store planning group at Limited Brands during the company’s dramatic growth years, where he actively participated in the negotiation and management of thousands of retail leases. Since 2002, he has consulted with many retailers in assignments focused on market strategy and analytics, tenant representation, store design and construction, and lease administration, bill payment and audit. He has worked with over 70 specialty retailers, many on multi-year, multi-service long term engagements. Read Steve Morris’ full bio
Carrie is responsible for day to day operations at The Grayson Company. As one of the most tenured members of the team, Carrie has an exceptional understanding of the clients and markets that we serve. Carrie is also responsible for oversight of TGC finances, as well as the TGC Website. Carrie previously worked at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Tarkett, Inc as well as San Francisco private equity firm Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe.
David’s 25 years of broad based experience in the industry has enabled him to become one of the industry’s most respected executives. His expertise in inventory planning, control and allocation in early stage business development, in retail real estate, and in store operations and IT systems, has helped underwrite the success of companies including Coach, Kenneth Cole and Steve Madden, where he played key roles in their growth stories. He has consulted for LVMH, Calvin Klein, and Harvard Investment Capital. Read David Otani’s full bio
With 20 years of experience, Larry is a strategic, innovative E-Commerce, Retail, and Omni-channel Marketing business leader who drives industry leading performance and builds high performing organizations and culture. Larry is currently a Digital/ E-Commerce Consultant and Advisor, providing brands, retailers and startups with global e-commerce strategy, digital marketing, mobile & omni-channel advisory services that deliver exponential growth. Previously, Larry was Senior Vice President of Digital Commerce for Vince Camuto where he was responsible for all e-commerce and omni-channel strategies, operations, and initiatives. Prior to Vince Camuto, Larry was Vice President of E-Commerce for Barneys New York, managing all aspects of Barney’s e-commerce division from its inception.
Barbara is a seasoned customer experience executive and design consultant with an extensive background in creating, building, and growing visual brand narratives for some of the top fashion houses. With over 25 years of fashion industry experience, Barbara is an expert in translating and implementing original designs through a comprehensive, marketing based strategy across store fronts in the U.S. and Europe. Barbara has lead visual merchandising teams for brands which include Liz Claiborne, Henri Bendel, Burberry, The Limited Brands, and, most recently, Scoop NYC. Her passion and constant sourcing of inspiration keep Barbara on the pulse of the visual merchandising world.
During Mike’s retail real estate career, he held positions with super market chains, drug store chains and with specialty retail tenants Williams-Sonoma and Talbots. His success in selecting brand appropriate sites and negotiating favorable deals led to the credibility required to begin a consulting practice where he has worked with many top quality specialty chains including Estee Lauder, Ross Simons, Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Hanna Andersson, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, and Tempur-Pedic. Read Mike Riney’s full bio
Rebecca uses data analytics to create merchandise strategies and maximize results. She built her merchandising and planning expertise in the specialty, luxury and department store sectors. She has managed a wide variety of categories including women’s and men’s apparel, fine jewelry, accessories and home textiles. In addition to merchandise planning leadership roles, Rebecca has managed allocation and replenishment planning teams, forging strong collaborative relationships with senior leadership partners. Rebecca has also overseen the implementation of allocation and replenishment systems, guiding her teams and senior partners through change management.
Rob Smith is an intuitive merchant with a broad-based background in department store, specialty store, vertical, and online retailing. Throughout his distinguished career he has consistently achieved bottom line success by developing and building businesses up to $3 billion in annual sales, leading successful turnarounds in corporate cultures and small business environments, and managing multi-product classifications as well as individual brands.
Zenda is the consummate store design and visual merchandising executive. With extensive visual merchandising experience at Burdines and Macys, Zenda accepted the position of VP of Visual Merchandising at Lerner New York, a 900 store specialty chain where she led the function for eight years before moving on to launch two successful store fixture companies. Following the sale of these two companies, Zenda began her consulting career and has worked with, among others, Banana Republic, Burberry, Victoria’s Secret, Kenneth Cole, Ann Taylor, and Chicos. Read Zenda Snyder’s full bio
Having built the Macy’s.com business from $40M to $1.1B in ten years, Helaine is one of the most accomplished ecommerce executives in the industry. Her leadership of the merchandising, planning, creative and marketing strategy led to great success for the company and enabled her to acquire best of class experience and expertise in all aspects of strategy and execution in ecommerce and omni-channel enterprises.
