Offering Better Services with Consumer Insights Meriden Lewis visited students in the Retail Leadership Seminar. Lewis has worked with Dillard’s, Newell Brands and most recently accepted a position with Estee Lauder as the Director of Account Management working in Specialty/Multi Channel (Ulta Beauty). Lewis spoke to students about the importance of consumer insights in the [...]

A Day in the Life of a Mall Manager Steven Jamieson, Corporate Director of Operations for The Forbes Company, came to speak to the students in the Retail Leadership Seminar. Jamieson oversees The Mall at Millenia in Orlando, FL, The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens Fl, Waterside Shops in Naples FL, and Somerset Collection [...]

Countdown to Black Friday Katherine O’Meara, Macy's Dadeland director of sales and customer experience, came to speak to the students in the Sears Retail Leadership Seminar. She presented on Macy’s Countdown to Black Friday, which allowed students to understand what Black Friday preparation is about from a store perspective. The retailing fiscal year is broken [...]

Global Retailer Helps Students Understand Sourcing Daniel Dias, senior vice-president of sourcing and May-Ling Martinez, senior vice-president of sourcing from Perry Ellis International came to speak about Global Sourcing to students in the Retail Leadership Seminar. They spoke of the importance of sourcing in the supply chain. They educated students on all of the aspects [...]

Offering Excellent Customer Experience Amy Casari, Enterprise Holdings Talent Acquisition Manager for Northeast Florida, came to speak to students about the consumer experience. Enterprise is the largest car rental company in the world as measured by revenue, fleet, and employees. The company hires over 8,000 college graduates a year. Amy shared how Enterprise’s mission statement [...]

Retail Student of the Year Elizabeth Early has been recognized as the Retail Student of the Year for 2022-23. As a senior at the University of Florida, her goal was to give back to the school that shaped her into who she has become. Elizabeth admits that as a freshman, she had no idea where [...]

Meet Gator in Retail: Susan Chronister Susan Chronister is the head of US and Canada Retail Sales for Belkin International. She serves on the executive board of the Miller Retail Center. Susan studied at UF and the Miller Retail Center, where she gained valuable connections and guidance toward a career in retail. While attending UF, [...]

Perry Ellis International Discusses Innovation Gina Avila, the Executive Vice President of Design and Merchandising, and Joan Kolski, the Senior Vice President of Merchandising for Perry Ellis International, visited Friday's Retail Seminar class to talk about the history of Perry Ellis International and its culture of innovation. Their focus as a company is to offer [...]

Being Innovative and Competitive Go Hand in Hand This week, the Miller Center had the pleasure of having Tom Goden, the Director of Pharmacy and Retail Operations for Walgreens in the Northwest region of Florida. Tom talked about the relationship between innovation and competitiveness. In a competitive market like pharmacy/retail, he showed us some of [...]

CEO and Chairman Matt Beall Visits Retail Society Matt Beall, CEO and Chairman, Bealls This week, Gator graduate Matt Beall, the CEO and Chairman of Bealls, visited UF students as part of a Retail Society gathering. Matt spoke about how his great grandfather started the company back in 1915. The historical company lost the business [...]